Review on 🎙 Sony Memory Stick Media Digital Voice Recorder ICD-BM1 | 128MB MS Duo + Adaptor by Amanda Ellis

I've been using it for several days, a few hours a day, and I'm not sure I like it better. I use it for a specific purpose: dictate my YouTube podcasts while walking my dogs in the dark, often pausing to think. I prefer not to look at the screen and rely on beeps - to hear beeps and hear my voice better I wear headphones. It seems to work. CONS: Each pause is recorded as a relatively loud click (sliding click). Not unpleasant, but clearly indicates a time gap. Too bad the click is not recorded. CONS: Initially by default it was very easy to make a mistake and overwrite what you just recorded - by default the rocker skip controller is next to the record slider and it was very easy to accidentally press and overwrite it . The screen will flash a silent warning for 3 seconds, but if you don't look at the screen, you're screwed. Now I've found a setting that allows it to be turned off, but still manages to somehow jump to the beginning when rewind viewing (moving the slider all the way down) and then again risk losing the recording . Makes me angry. Otherwise, the technology was very close to perfection, but this bug killed it. No wonder it was discontinued. The design was close to perfect, but the user interface wasn't perfected. Such a shame. We now have countless voice recorders that require you to look at them while dictating, which is very inefficient and shouldn't be necessary. I have now downgraded my rating from 5 stars to 3 stars and ordered a state-of-the-art voice recorder. Let's see if it gets better. PROS: Feels good in hand, some buttons and shifters have a nice touch and are quite comfortable. CONS: I had to put a sticker on the battery cover, it opens and loses batteries. The charger is making noise and does not appear to be charging the batteries. MY OLD REVIEW Love it! Good sound quality and the ability to operate blindly without even looking. It is ideal for shooting at night or when visibility is poor or non-existent. I love walking my dogs and taking serious dictations for YouTube while pausing to think. I was looking for a dictaphone that would work blind, pause and not worry about losing dictation or being out of sync. This one is perfect for that. I don't think Revain has anything like that - the digital ones require the user to watch them every time, the tapes have poor sound quality. Moving the record slide switch - record / pause / play / rewind. Easy return and overwrite. Easy and convenient removal. Cons: I bought used and had to seal the battery compartment with tape. Minuses! - It records in a HORRIBLE proprietary Sony MSV format, it took some effort to figure out how to convert it: Here's the converter [.] Appears to be free for personal use. You also need to download Sony's plug-in here [.] Once installed, the conversion went smoothly. Surprisingly, the Sony memory card was easily connected to the laptop's memory card slot. It looks different but seems to fit well. CONS: Audio slider sound is recorded and bothers me. I don't want to edit it. So every time I pause the recording, the slide makes a loud clicking noise. PS: NCH software trial version is expired, and I found SONY free software to convert MSV files: [.] Sound Organizer Ver.1.6 from SONY website. It's cumbersome, but it works.