iDictate – Digital Voice Blog

NCH Software recently outed a new release of the worlds most popular free transcription software for Windows, Express Scribe, which is finally compatible with DSS Pro audio file formats, better known as .ds2 files. Not only that but NCH claims that Express Scribe is compatible with both Phillips DSS Pro and Olympus DSS Pro audio files (yes there is a difference even though DSS Pro is supposed to be a standard).

From Olympus the DSS Pro (.ds2) audio files are created on their Pro range of digital dictaphones (DS-5000, DS-3400 and DS-2400) and has caused some issues for many small outsource transcription businesses who were aggrieved to actually spend money and buy the appropriate software to either play or convert these audio files to load into pre version 5.30 Express Scribe. How to convert .ds2 audio files to play in Express Scribe has been covered in an earlier blog post of ours (one of our most popular posts) – click here

Great move by NCH although it did take some time to get there, the rejoicing from the transcription world will be huge. Easily one of the best if not the best transcription software out there, Express Scribe continues to dominate the transcription world and rightly so. Come on NCH, let us pay for this software

As yet .ds2 can only be played by Express Scribe on Windows. The Mac version (as of version 5.32) remains without .ds2 support.

Click here to keep an eye on Express Scribe versions – both Mac and Windows

Click here to download a sample Olympus .ds2 audio file to test your Express Scribe

If you check in on our blog often you would have noticed us drooling of the amazing Olympus LS-20M a few months back, in case you missed it here is the link – please note the massive close up picture of the LS-20M just to ram home how cool this little device is.

Well in the latest pricing released to all Olympus Australia resellers today you could almost hear the shouts of “yippee” across the country as we rubbed our eyes in disbelief, the LS-20M is now available in Australia (or will be in the next week or two).

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One common question at the Dictate Australia HQ is about files, specifically how can we get large audio files created on digital voice recorders to our colleagues or to a typist. With high quality audio recording the norm now and huge amounts of storage on all digital voice recorders audio can and often is very large in file size. Unfortunately email has not moved with the times and the majority of mail servers restrict email attachments to between 5mb and 10Mb in size, probably rightly so, email is not an ideal way to move large files around.

This is where Dropbox comes in. More

And a pleasant surprise today when this popped up on my desktop:

Yes, 11.5 is now ready for download and upgrade in Australia for all registered Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11 users. The upgrade will open up the use of your iPhone as a remote wireless mic into Dragon NaturallySpeaking on Windows (unless you are a Home user) aswell as some new social tools like tweeting and Facebook updates using Dragon. I am willing to bet 20c that we will see another upgrade soon to include posts to Google+, here’s hoping.

Want to know how to use your iPhone with Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11.5? First you will need to grab the free Dragon Remote Mic app from iTunes here Then watch this official Nuance video … [click here for the video]

We get alot of hits on our blog from all over the world. Many hits are people searching for answers to specific questions. So we thought we would start a post and update as we go with questions we see pop up from day to day. This post will get longer over time so make good use of your browsers search function (here’s a tip, click Ctrl-f):

Do you have a question you would like answered? Leave a comment and we may include it in the list.

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The DM series recorders in Australia are now manned by the Olympus DM-3 and the Olympus DM-5 digital voice recorders since the launch of the DM3 in early July 2011. To look at them you would be hard pressed to tell the difference other than the Olympus DM3 is silver and the Olympus DM5 is black.

So what is the difference between the two? Here is a summary:

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Olympus have just bumped DSS Player Pro for Windows from version R5.0.11 to R.5.0.12 – grab your copy now by selecting Help -> Check For Updates -> Dictation Module from your DSS Player Pro software (or transcription module if you are using that).

This seems to be a minor bug fix release with the following issues addressed: More

Lets face it, it happens – you lose a thingy or misplace a what-do-ya-ma-call-it and suddenly you can’t do what you always do with your Olympus DS-5000 digital dictaphone. After all the box does come jam packed with cables, a CD, licence keys, docking station, batteries the list goes on. So what happens when you can’t find the thing you need?

Well, all official Olympus resellers will also sell spare parts, the trick is knowing what that spare part is called. In this post I will go through everything that is in the box and show you the part numbers and their RRP (in Australia) to give you an idea if you really should have looked after that part a bit more carefully. When you open the Olympus branded shoe box that contains your new DS-5000 or DS-5000iD everything inside can be replaced except for the recorder itself. So apart from the recorder what you will find inside are: More