RCA RP5120 256MB USB 104 Hour Recording Digital Voice Recorder
- Digital Voice Recorder with USB
- 104 hour record time – 256MB
- Editing Functions, Automatic Voice-Activated Record (AVR), and Variable Speed Playback
- External microphone jack
Product Description
The RP5120 digital voice recorder by RCA is the perfect tool for taking notes. It can be used at lectures and seminars or it can be used to simply record important day-to-day notes. It has 256MB of built in flash memory, allowing you to use up to 104 hours (1 hour and 44 minutes) of worry-free recording. Digital voice recorder has a digital display screen that shows the time, low battery indicator and recording countdown. Unit has a USB port allowing for file do… More >>
RCA RP5120 256MB USB 104 Hour Recording Digital Voice Recorder
I bought this for the MP3 encoding, as stated in the product description. It does NOT have MP3 encoding.
Rating: 1 / 5
Comment by Alex Davis — October 18, 2009 @ 4:44 pm
I am a pastor and a forgetful person. I needed a voice recorder for the sermons the Lord gives me when I go on my walks. I also needed something to remind me of things I need to do, buy or schedule. This little recorder was an answer to my prayers. First it is small and sleek. The features are very easy to use and the screen easy to read. Second, it has four different file folders that can hold up to 99 voice files. So that means I use folder 1 for sermon notes. Folder 2 for shopping list and things to get at the store. Folder 3, is my to do list for that day. And folder 4 Hymns and choruses and prayer requests for Sunday! This little thing is awesome. Fits into my pocket nice. Voice clarity is very good. What else can I say, this is a great peice of technology!!! Much better than the mini cassette player I was carrying around. This thing even has book marks, which i use for sermon divisions. I can skip right to the division I’m working on. So if I am driving down the road or on my walk and think of something, I pull out this handy device and record it. What a blessing!!!!
Rating: 5 / 5
Comment by J. Snoke — October 18, 2009 @ 7:33 pm
I purchased this on Monday and returned it on Wednesday. The playback is awful. The setup is not intuitive. Not reccommended.
Rating: 2 / 5
Comment by A. Spurious — October 18, 2009 @ 9:01 pm
The recorder has a lot of nice features, and is simple to use. I like the price, and the fact that it can be connected to the computer (the most important aspect, to me).
However, transferring files eventually started to fail for me producing “Bad File Format” errors preventing me from listening to the recorded files or ever being able to transfer them again. Customer support indicated that I must reformat the recorder… thus losing the files (although I could sometimes continue to listen to the recordings on the recorder, once the errors began, they continued to get worse making transferring the files impossible).
Also, battery life proved short. I tried many great brands. After several recordings, the battery meter would indicate the batteries were nearly exhausted. This was pretty much consistent.
When the recorder works, I like the ease of use. I like the folders. And the sound isn’t all that bad, even in an auditorium setting. Not great either since voices often sound a bit muffled at times while environmental sounds seemed somewhat magnified.
Unfortunately, dependability is the issue. The recordings become more valuable than the recorder, and if you cannot access them or transfer them to a computer, then you are doomed to listen to them on the recorder (if that hasn’t failed either). I have gone through a couple of these and so have my colleagues. The “bad file format” issue is clearly an issue that happens, seemingly, frequently. And if your recordings are important, I could not endorse this product for purchase at all (for that matter, any RCA recorder since their support team was less than stellar or helpful).
I wanted to give this a 4-star review, but had to go with 1 because of it’s lack of dependability (I would give it a zero for this, actually). But if you’re willing to gamble, and you want a cheap recorder that has some nice features, you might get a recorder that doesn’t fail. As I mentioned, the failings have happened to me far too many times and it has become costly.
Rating: 1 / 5
Comment by CCUser — October 18, 2009 @ 9:08 pm
I’ve had this unit for awhile and even though this is my first digital recorder, I like it. It holds 18 hrs of audio. You can download to your pc and convert to a .wav which I import to itunes and listen to class notes on my ipod. Even though I could listen (or talk) through a headset, I like a continuous reading on my ipod.
Battery life is really good, two AAA’s. The transfer and conversion process could be better. I can transfer entire folders, but I can only convert one file at a time. My notes are short and I have a bunch. A bit of a pain, but quick.
Audio quality is good enough and I’m sure the fast forward and things like that could be better, but for the price and a basic unit that works, I like it.
Rating: 4 / 5
Comment by W. Weisser — October 18, 2009 @ 11:33 pm