Review on 🎙️ Efficient Recording and Storage: RCA VR5220 512 MB Digital Voice Recorder (Black) by Tony Ledbetter

I bought this recorder because I needed a cheap solution for a lot of activities that require me to take a lot of notes. I was looking for a digital recorder and it had to be a recorder that I could connect to my computer for fast file transfers. As long as that was true, the recorder's storage space didn't bother me as I could always fill and empty it at the end of each week. Price: The voice recorder is fairly affordable compared to some other products on the market and has a lot more bells and whistles than I need so I thought it was great. Interface: The digital display is crisp, although switching between folders takes a little longer than I'd like, navigating the clear menu is fairly easy. · Connectivity: This recorder has a built in USB port which drew me in right away. I didn't want to lug around cables so I was happy with that. The port is big and strong. It's neatly hidden under a plastic cover so you don't have to worry about dust. When the USB port is disabled it will lock securely so you don't have to worry about it being pushed back into the recorder when you plug it into your computer's USB port. Well done. It's important to note that thanks to the USB port, you can transfer files straight to your computer. There are voice recorders on the market that are "digital" in the sense that they do not require blank media such as mini-cassettes to record sound; They store audio on internal storage, but in order for you to archive that audio, you must do so via real-time playback. You really need to sit down, hit the play button and watch audio for hours while it's being recorded on your computer. This voice recorder creates audio files that can be quickly copied to neat folders on your computer. One very important thing to remember is that the voice recorder must be powered on before plugging it into the USB port. · Files: Lower sound quality settings produce .VOC files, while high quality settings produce .WAV sound files. Format. This is important and I will talk about it later. · Storage Capacity: This recorder doesn't have a lot of storage space, but it was enough for me. It has 512MB of internal memory. An enlargement or upgrade with additional memory cards is not possible, but not necessary. It can record just over 17 hours at high quality, and more if you choose lower quality settings. So while you're stuck with 512MB, that's enough. · Compatibility: If you're using a PC now, you're spot on. It's fully PC compatible and comes with great software to manage your audio recordings. .VOC and .WAV files work great on Windows. If you're using a Mac, you might have a bit of a problem here. I use a Mac and initially agreed with all of the reviewers who said the recorder works great with their Mac. .VOC formats don't work on Mac OS, but .WAV format works fine, so I was happy with that. However, when I plugged it into my Mac, it just didn't work. I was discouraged but didn't return it because I could always use my wife's laptop and then transfer the files to my Mac. It would be a painful and lengthy process, but I could live with it. The problem wasn't the recorder, however. I had Mac OS 10.4 (Tiger) and it doesn't seem to work with Tiger. I connected the recorder after upgrading to Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) and the recorder just appeared on my desktop. So YES, this recorder WORKS on Macs as other reviewers have said but they didn't mention what system they were running on. Mac included! · Sound Quality: The recorder works very well in high quality. I always keep it on this one because it creates the .WAV format files that I need on my Mac anyway. As said, .VOC files do not work on Mac OS.