Olympus VN-4100PC Digital Voice Recorder

I borrowed my friend's unit VN-4100PC for my wife to do an interview. It will not download to my machine. After investigation, the FAQ suggests using Digital Wave Player 2.1+, but it was shipped with 2.0. I downloaded the update, but it doesn't update the software. So it's useless. My wife will have to work on the recording from the recorder, rather than from a transferred file on our computer.

I once had an Olympus digital camera, admittedly, it was four years ago. But I had similar problems with that software. I can only conclude that Olypus doesn't do software. Or maybe they just don't know how to do it right.

My Pentax camera, OTOH, has a very easy, intuitive interface. So I will probably continue to stay away from Olypus products.

The product is okay although reading the instruction should more in depth than it is. I tried it in a class I was taking but the noise it picked up was recorded more than what lecture. I tired every other way. but in less hectic environment it does record okay.

The reviews of this product smacked of the manufacturer's marketing department hiring interns to post bogus positive reviews. Sure enough, over and over again so many of the 4 and 5 star reviews are by accounts that exist only to have posted the bogus reviews here.

Please, someone who is familiar with similar models by other companies, name other recommendations here. I hate to give business to a manufacturer that engages in such smarmy and deceptive business practices. Much less the red flag that those posting the bogus reviews clearly don't have confidence in their product based on its own merits.

Especially welcome would be reviews of a competing product with a USB connection that enables it to appear as a another storage device in Windows file management without requiring the install of kludgy software. If my digital camera can transparently display its contents for file copy or move to the PC within Windows File Manager as soon as the USB connects, I'm sure that someone else is manufacturing a voice recorder capable of doing the same.

Spoken words record and sound excellent. Little backgournd noise. Recording spir of the moment music sessions, like with my guitar, not so great. Still a handy and easy to use recorder with USB. Worth the price!

This is so far the best (cheap) sound recorder I have had. It does what it is suppose to. The menus are easy to navigate and if you read the manual you can find the perfect settings for recording in any situation. the only thing I have to say would that would be negative would be that when I plug in the headphones to listen to my recordings, only the left earbud works. This also happened when I plugged them into my home speakers. With that said, its a pretty decent machine. Software is a bit slow for my taste.