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

Olympus Imaging yesterday revised the price on a number of their hugely popular digital notetakers (used mainly for voice notes, interviews, meetings, conferences, lectures etc.) in a downward direction. Last year we had a flood of downward price movements after the middle man, Nationwide Dictating, was removed and Olympus Imaging took over Australian distribution of the voice products. More

On a budget, short of cash, funds a bit low, boss won’t spend big on technology? Then do Philips and Olympus Voice have a cheap digital voice recorder for you.

The range of digital voice recorders on offer from the two big boys, Olympus & Philips, can be a little bewildering to the average person. With Olympus alone having a range of around fifteen digital voice recording devices starting at the AU$99 (VN-8500PC) and going all the way up to AU$945 (DM-5000iD) the consumer can be forgiven for being a little overwhelmed by the choice.

At the bottom of the pile, in a nice way, are the cheap budget digital voice recorders (note takers) which range from AU$99 to AU$129. These are the most basic of voice recorders but will get you by if you are pinching pennies or do not require all the features and functions that some of the more mainstream recorders provide. Your typical lower end digital voice recorder still however picks up and records pretty good audio. They would not be recommended for important board meetings, focus groups and even sound bites if you are a journalist. But if you are looking to record informal chats, your strumming on a guitar, family oral history recordings and at a push lectures and the like, then these digital recorders will be of interest to you.

What You Get:

• Simple, easy to use recording
• Mac & Windows compatible recorders
• .MP3 or .WMA (Windows Media Audio) Recording
• Digital note taking

What You Don’t Get:

• A digital dictaphone
• High quality, high bit rate stereo recording
• Background noise filtering
• Mic Level adjustment
• PCM Recording
• Mic adjustment – Wide/Narrow/Zoom
• Software for editing, adding notes, sending etc
• Large amounts of memory for storage
• This list would go on and on

So lets take a look at what Olympus and Philips have to offer in their budget range, both have two recorders…

Philips Digital Voice Tracer LFH0612 & LFH0632

From Philips there is the Digital Voice Tracer, DVT for short, models LFH0612 and LFH0632. You would be hard pushed to spot the difference between these two recorders other than the obvious colour. Both have 1Gb of memory, 3 recording modes (HQ, SP, SLP) and both record .mp3 audio files. The only difference we can find is that the LFH0632 has a voice volume indicator whereas the LFH0612 does not. Both units last around 15-20 hours of recording off the 2x AAA batteries.

Olympus VN-8500PC & VN-8600PC

From Olympus we have the VN-8500PC and the VN-8600PC. These little beauties you can tell the difference between on the spec sheet, although interestingly not to look at (unless you look closely and you will see that the VN-8500PC has a narrower speaker grill than the VN-8600PC). The key differences between these two are; VN-8500PC only records in .WMA (can be painful on a Mac) whereas the VN-8600PC records in your choice of .WMA or .MP3. VN-8500PC only has 1Gb of memory whereas the VN-8600PC doubles up with 2Gb of memory giving you longer maximum recording times. Olympus claim to get 51 hours of usage out of the 2x AAA batteries.

Most who buy these recorders would be hard pressed to find much difference between them, alot would be swayed by brand loyalty. Are you a Philips person or an Olympus person?

Want a good quality digital voice recorder for a budget price? Check out our new Dictate Australia eBay Store where we will be listing our ex-demo, surplus stock and discontinued voice recorders and accessories. Here in the office we have quite a few recorders that have only been used for evaluation and testing purposes and are as good as new, we will be listing these in the coming weeks. Digital voice recorders that have been discontinued which we still have in stock, will be listed at bargain prices.

To kick things off though we have listed a brand new Philips Digital Pocket Memo (DPM) 9600 digital dictaphone at a bargain starting price of just $590 incl. GST well below the RRP of $995 incl. GST. This unit comes with the standard Philips Australia 1 year warranty which can be upgraded for free to a Philips 2 year warranty by registering the purchase through the Philips Voice Australia website.

Philips Dictation in Australia have just updated their website to allow online registering of certain Philips recorders giving the end user an extra year of warranty for free.  All Philips voice equipment comes with a 1 year warranty as standard, by registering your purchase that will be extended by Philips to two years, so well worth doing for an extra five minutes of your time.

The warranty upgrade only applies to the Digital Pocket Memo recorders, the 955 Conference Kit, SpeechMikes and all other dictation equipment except the Digital Voice Tracers. The warranty upgrade doesn’t just start from now, if you have bought any of the above covered products in 2010 it can be registered for the free warranty upgrade.

Click here to register your Philips dictation product for two years warranty.

In a recent press release from Philips Dictation Australia yet another innovative product has been added to their product line. This one though is a little different to the norm, this really is something different and something that I am sure will be very popular is the LFH2370 Philips Media Player Typing Set.

The innovation with this product is the clever thumb controller that sits under your keyboard which allows the control of audio playback through Windows Media Player 11, iTunes and WinAmp on Windows machines and iTunes and QuickTime on a Mac. Previously people typing notes from audio played back through media player type software had to constantly switch from their word processor to stop/start/rewind audio adding a huge amount of time to the transcription process. With this little device it will make typing notes from audio a much easier, less time consuming experience.

Using the two buttons on the USB thumb control the audio can be controlled in the following ways:

• Playback : To start continuous playback, press and release the right key. The status LED glows green during playback.
• Pause : Press the right key again to pause audio playback.
• Fast Forward : Press and hold the right key during playback. When “forwarding” reaches the desired position release the key.
• Fast Rewind : Press and hold the left key while playback is paused. When rewinding reaches the desired position release the key.
• Backspace : Double click the left key to backspace the audio by three seconds.

The media player typing set LFH2370 comes with the USB thumb control, stereo headset and Philips Media Player control software and is RRP $200.00 incl. GST.

The media payer typing set is also available as part of the Philips Writers Set, known as LFH087 which comprises the media player typing set and Philips Digital Voice Tracer 682 digital voice recorder.

So, this year has been a big one for Olympus voice with a revamp of all their digital recorder range. Not content with being left behind Philips had a go back in April when they rolled out, finally, Mac compatible note takers with the DVT (Digital Voice Tracer) range comprising of the 660/860/880 models. This week Philips have done a rejig in this range and discontinued the young 660/860/880 recorders and replaced them with new model numbers although essentially they are the previous recorders upgraded. Philips have also added some innovative voice recorder packages, like a set aimed at reporters and a set aimed at writers who might want to attempt their own transcription.

So what has been discontinued and what are their replacement models:

• Philips DVT LFH0660 discontinued, replaced by DVT LFH0662 (2GB – RRP AU$189)
• Philips DVT LFH0860 discontinued, replaced by DVT LFH0862 (4GB – RRP AU$249)
• Philips DVT LFH0880 discontinued, replaced by DVT LFH0882 (4GB – RRP AU$279)
• Philips DVR DragonNaturallySpeaking Voice Recorder Edition LFH-660/10 discontinued, replaced by LFH0667 (RRP AU$259)

A common change across the range is an increase in memory, that makes sense with solid state memory continuing to grow in size and drop in price. Also added to all recorders are a visual record level indicator and the USB connection, as well as powering the unit, will now also charge a rechargeable battery.

Other notable changes include uncompressed PCM recording now available on the LFH0662. High Sensitivity mic added to the LFH0862 and LFH0882 with the new “Zoom” function.

As mentioned another innovative thing Philips have done is create some Digital Voice Tracer combination packs, new packs are:

• LFH0868 (RRP AU$279) – 862 Digital Voice Tracer with docking station.
• LFH0888 (RRP AU$339) – 882 Digital Voice Tracer with docking station.
• LFH0867 (RRP AU$369) – Writers Set. 862 Digital Voice Tracer with the media player USB hand control (LFH2370/00)  which allows audio control with yours thumbs.
• LFH0885 (RRP AU$369) – Reporters Set. 882 Digital Voice Tracer with stereo lapel mic.
• LFH0895 (RRP AU$749) – Compact Meeting Recorder. I like this one, 882 Digital Voice Tracer with two of the best looking and good quality boundary mics available.

Expect to see these new models appearing around Australia from October.

## UPDATE ## This review was initially for the LFH0660/10 – this has been replaced in Australia in 2010 by the new model LFH0617/00. The software is the same, the recorder included in the pack is different. The Dragon NaturallySpeaking DVR (Digital Voice Recorder) Edition now contains the LFH0612 Philips digital voice tracer. The below review is still relevant, the software is setup and trained the same way with the new pack.

Released mid 2009 in Australia in a joint venture between Philips Dictation and Nuance was the Philips Dragon NaturallySpeaking Voice Recorder Edition (LFH0660/10) at an incredibly cheap price of RRP AU$259.00 incl. GST. At that price it certainly makes you sit up and pay attention, after all the package contains Dragon NaturallySpeaking v10 and a very competent Philips Digital VoiceTracer 660.

Not much to say about the Philips DVT 660, a great little recorder, perfect for single speaker audio. The 660 records in MP3 format and like all recorders has multiple recording modes (tip: always use the highest quality recording mode, SHQ on the DVT 660). This is a note taker not a dictaphone so you are not able to rewind/review your audio just simply record and stop, although you can pause during recordings. The recorder has 1Gb of in-built flash memory, can be powered by two AAA batteries or by USB and can record on the highest quality audio setting for 17.5 hours. More