RCA VR5220 512 MB Digital Voice Recorder
- 512MB Built-in Flash Memory – Allows you up to 200 hours of recording. Record lectures, seminars, or important day-to-day notes, without the worry of running out of time!
- Built-in, Flip-out USB – No Cables Needed! Built in USB port allows file download to PC. Once transferred to the PC, listen, share and save with our Digital Voice Management Program.
- Automatic Voice-Activated Record (AVR) – Allows recorder to sense the sound and start recording automatically. Recording stops when sound stops.
- Variable Speed Playback – Select from multiple playback speeds so you can listen to your recorded files at your own pace.
- Intro Scan – Preview message content to quickly find messages.
Product Description
Use the VR5220 digital voice recorder by RCA for taking notes at lectures and seminars or to simply record important day-to-day notes. With 512MB of built in flash memory, you can enjoy up to 200 hours of recording. The digital voice recorder features a multi-function LCD display that shows the time, low battery indicator, recording countdown and other information. The built-in USB allows for direct PC connection, helping you listen, share, save and organize with ea… More >>
So the box says “…To listen to audio files on your mac, simply copy the audio files to your mac and use Quicktime for listening.”
Not true. My wife gave up trying.
RCA has immeasurably damaged its brand with our household. And they’ve made a similar ancillary impact on us for all consumer electronics that promise computer compatibility. They’ll fool you if they can.
Rating: 1 / 5
Comment by V. Emmer — March 30, 2010 @ 7:30 pm
I bought mine at Walmart for $35.00. It has many amazing functions, clear playback and ease of use. I have yet to download or send files, but so far I am amazed at this little machine! I am an Intuitive Counselor and use it for my clients sessions…and being that I have a pc I doubt I will have any problems sith the functional problems stated in thie other review. If so, I will let you know.
Rating: 5 / 5
Comment by Judith Jandora — March 30, 2010 @ 9:23 pm
When I bought the recorder, it was great! It was pretty easy to use and navigate through. The sound quality was clear if the person was close to you. But then after about a month, the recorder started to freeze up on me. I would start to record and then after about 2 seconds it would stop. The first time I thought the batteries were dying, so I changed them. Then it started to happen almost every time I tried to record something. At this point, I couldn’t even retrieve my recorded messages, everything was frozen. I contacted [...] (I bought it through amazon, but [...] was the company). They responded immediately and sent me a pre-paid envelope to return the recorder. They offered to refund my money or send a replacement. I decided to go with the refund as I was nervous about trying the recorder again. If mine had worked, then I would have thought this was a great buy for the price.
In the short time that I did own the recorder, I did notice that the batteries drained pretty quick. In the month that mine was working, I had to change the batteries twice. I didn’t think I used the recorder that much to drain the batteries so fast, so rechargeable batteries might be beneficial.
Rating: 2 / 5
Comment by L. bell — March 30, 2010 @ 9:30 pm
I bought this voice recorder because I needed an inexpensive solution to a lot of classes that I was going to have to take lots of notes on. I was looking for a digital recorder, and it had to be a recorder that I could plug into my computer for quick file transferring. As long as that was true, I didn’t mind how big the memory capacity of the recorder was, since I could always fill it up and empty it at the end of each week.
· Price: the recorder is pretty affordable compared to some of the other products out there with far more bells and whistles than I need, so I felt it was great.
· Interface: The digital display is clear though swapping between folders is a little more time consuming than I would like, navigating through the brief menu is easy enough.
· Connectivity: This recorder has a built-in USB port which attracted me to it immediately. I didn’t want to be carrying any cables around with me, so I was pleased by this. The port is great and sturdy. It hides away cleanly under a plastic cover so you won’t worry about dust. When the USB port is out, it locks firmly so there is no fear of it being pushed back into the recorder when you are inserting it into the computer’s USB port. Good job on that. An important thing to mention is that thanks to the USB port, you can transfer files directly to your computer. There are voice recorders out in the market which are “digital” in the sense that they do not require black media such as minicassettes to record the audio; they store the audio in internal memory, but in order for you to archive that audio, you need to do it through playback in real time. You need to actually sit down and press play and sit through hours and hours of audio while it’s recorded into your computer. This recorder produces audio files which can be quickly copied into neatly organized folders in your computer. One very important thing to remember is that the recorder must be turned ON before you plug it into a USB port.
· Files: The lower sound quality settings produce files in .VOC format, while the High Quality setting produces sound files in the .WAV format. This is important and I will talk about it more later.
· Memory capacity: This recorder doesn’t have an enormous amount of memory capacity, but it was enough for me. It has 512MB of built-in memory. It cannot be increased or upgraded using additional memory cards, but you don’t need to. It can record a little over 17 hours on high quality, more if you choose lower quality settings. So, although you’re stuck with 512MB, it’s plenty.
· Compatibility: Now, if you’re using a PC, you’re golden. This is totally compatible for PCs, it comes with some nifty software for managing your audio recordings. both the .VOC and .WAV files work fine in Windows. If you’re using a Mac, this is where you might have a little trouble. I use a Mac and at first I went with all the reviewers that said the recorder worked fine with their Macs. The .VOC formats don’t work on Mac OS, but the .WAV format works fine, so I was happy about that. However, when I plugged it into my Mac, it just didn’t work. I was disheartened, but I didn’t return it because I could always use my wife’s PC laptop and then transfer the files to my Mac. It would be a pain, but one I could live with.
The problem, though, was not the recorder. I was running Mac OS 10.4 (Tiger), and apparently it doesn’t work with Tiger. I plugged the recorder after updating to Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) and the recorder just popped up on my desktop.
So YES, this recorder WORKS on Macs just like other reviewers have said, but they failed to mention what system they were running their Macs on!
· Sound Quality: The recorder works very well on High Quality. I always keep it on that because it produces the .WAV format files that I require on my Mac anyway. As I said, .VOC files don’t work on Mac OS.
Rating: 5 / 5
Comment by Arturo Ruiz — March 30, 2010 @ 9:35 pm
The unit is overall not that hard to figure out as long as it is basic operation.
There are many things missing for me when trying to copy my files to my computer, because the directions simply do not work for me.
I am not sure if it is me or the lack of direction in the directions because nothing is working like it says it should.
I tried to go to [...] for some help and they wanted to charge me $28.00 for online help. Heck, thats as much as I paid for this unit.
It would be nice to get the support for at least the 90 day mfg warranty period. Now I am waiting for my local guy who owes my a favor to try and teach me this thing. Very disappointing that once the sale is made the support goes up for sale.
Wrong….Wrong…Wrong…Wrong…Believe me I would like to use stronger language but It would only feel good for a second.
Rating: 3 / 5
Comment by M. L. Raposa — March 30, 2010 @ 10:13 pm