Panasonic RR-US450 Voice Recorder, Thin Style, PC Software 66 Hour Rec

I've always respected Panasonic quality and reliability -- but this was a shock.

It was onsale at Fry's for 39 dollars -- 1 day sale.
I returned it within hours.

The main reason was neither XPSP2 or Vista wouuld recognize it as a device in My Computer.

While it was detected and identified as an IC recorder in XP -- one could never access anything saved on it.

Instructions took about 45 minutes of careful scrutiny just to configure settings necessary to record something.

Playback volume was weak; "buttons" difficult to identify and press.

I expected this device to produce an "open with" or "autoplay" dialog just as one would expect for a camera.

No such dialog ever appeared.

Vista never knew what it was. XP could not see it as a drive.

Their 1-800 support number was inaccessible from California. Their 1-905 number for Canada, was -- but noone was...Read more

Kind of cheaply constructed - the controls are a bit weird - and everytime I pick it up I wonder, "Is it broke yet?" I've been able to record conversations accurately and painlessly. The software is "crappy" - but it does the job if you struggle to learn it. My task was to record the conversation, download their format, convert it to mp3/wav for distribution. I used their software to get to the wav, and Audacity to get to the mp3. Their software is pretty good at removing noise to clean up the recording. I've had it about 3 months now, and I still haven't broken it. I keep it in my back pack wrapped in a bandera. (Makes a better case than the sock I was using - and people don't react to the bandera as strongly as they did to the dirty sock.)

I've had this recorder for 3 years and use it for my job to record meetings, of which I then produce written summaries. It works OK, but I have a new laptop for my job and I want to install the driver software on the new machine. I haven't done that because I no longer have the original driver disc and Panasonic wants me to pay for a replacement (no free download). I don't want to waste the money doing that because the new machine runs Vista and the software doesn't work well on Vista. My recommendation is to get a recorder from a different company with better customer service.