Registered: Apr 2001
Location: Prison
Posts: 421

Greetings!

As I am about to (hopefully) receive my brand new VDX, I obviously have plans for buying Springboard modules. I would like to get an add-on Mp3 player for it. The SoundsGood is priced in the ballpark, but it won't sync with macs. However, I saw an interesting feature on the Total Recall voice recorder... headphone jacks. I am wondering if it would work with any success at all if I was to record music files using the microphone and then listening to them with the Total Recall voice recorder. Would it be practical? It stores 1.5 hours of "messages." Obviously, sound quality would dip, but has anyone tried something like this.... was it successful in any way? (meaning, you could listen to moderate quality music?)

The Total Recall claims to have good sound quality...

Feedback welcome.

<--- When my VDX DOES arrive, Mr. Hands will stop spilling his "Kool Aid"

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Registered: Mar 2001
Location: Champaign, IL
Posts: 200

It'll work but from the Targus product spec page it doesn't look like it would do too good of a job. It records at just ~6Kbps to stuff 1.5 hours into the 4MB of memory.

For slightly better quality you can do "34Kbps ADPCM", but that works out to about 8KHz sampling... similar to a telephone, but then you get just 15 minutes on the recorder (although, as Targus points out, you can buy a SECOND recorder and DOUBLE your storage!)

Another factor to consider is that they don't mention any way to transfer FROM PC to Total Recall. IF that's true then you'll need to re-record the music yourself (like making a MiniDisc).

The Innogear MP3 player does support the Mac. :P

Registered: Mar 2001
Location: Champaign, IL
Posts: 200

One more thing: although these are for different compression schemes, for a VERY rough point of comparison, CDs store music at 1.4Mbps, "typical" MP3s are 128Kbps (11x smaller), small MP3s/WMAs are 64Kbps, and Audible.com books range from 4.6Kbps to 33Kbps, roughly the same quality as the Total Recall.

Registered: Jul 2000
Location: austin, texas
Posts: 61

i have a total recall, and it's a great module for voice memos, but you could never use it for music. not practical. the low and medium quality recording rates are barely tolerable for quick voice memos. even the hi quality one that only gives you fifteen minutes, while excellent for voice memos, etc wouldn't be too good for actual music for pleasure listening. and ya, you can't reverse sync from the pc to the module. mine's for sale, by the way, as i am getting a kyocera smartphone soon, but don't buy it for music. it is an excellent voice recorder tho.

cheers

[email protected]

ps, and hell, buy two and double your storage capacity!!

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Registered: Dec 2000
Location: Baltimore, MD
Posts: 260

quote:

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Originally posted by bblue
The SoundsGood is priced in the ballpark, but it won't sync with macs...

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OK, I have a SoundsGood and a mac. You CAN use them together, you just ned to use them with Virtual PC, which isn't as much of a pain as it sounds.... As long as you have USB and WIndows 98 on VPC it works fine. Not to mention you can save the state with the Good software running, quit to the MacOS and return to it faster than you can by rebooting a PC.

The transfer times are quite good also. I can fill my SG in about 6 minutes on the mac. I now they don't support the mac, but the folks at Good are very cool and they were very supportive of my quest to get things working even if they don't have mac software. If you have VPC and Win98, it is worth the hassle, especially at $149...

Registered: Dec 1999
Location:
Posts: 30

Hey Corb,

What are you asking for the voice recorder module? I might be interested.

Kevin

Registered: Jul 2000
Location: austin, texas
Posts: 61

probly 80 bucks. what sayest?

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