Dictaphone ((or whatever modern equivalent)

spurdog1

Ok Guys (and gals). Keep it simple, no technospeak please.

My wife wants to record her history. She hasn't a clue on technology (she still cannot work a lot of our Humax). So minimal buttons, no tapes to insert when the last tape is full, too complex.
This will be her life story, so plenty of storage (I've seen 1000-2000 hours)...I don't use Amazon, but yes to EBAY. Fine with currys.

Remember simple control (3-4 buttons). record, stop, play where possible. Anyone got any links to suitable dictaphones?

Cheers in anticipation, for your help.

Sandtree

Does she have a smartphone? 

If its no tapes then it wont just be record, play, stop (even with tapes you'd have rewind and fast forward) as each recording will be a new file and youll have at least an up/down to select which file you wish to playback plus there will be functions to delete files. 

Presumably you dont need her whole life story on the machine... you should backup to your computer fairly regularly anyway in case the device has an issue but you probably would only want to keep a few weeks worth of recordings on the device itself at most as you are not going to realistically be able to find the recording she made 4 months ago about her 10th birthday party.

spurdog1

No she doesnt have a smartphone. She is useless with technology. I'd back it up.

Sandtree

spurdog1 said:

No she doesnt have a smartphone. She is useless with technology. I'd back it up.

Fair enough... just thought if she'd already gotten comfortable enough with the basics of a smartphone it wouldnt be as big a step to get used to a basic app on it.

RealGem

https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/computing-accessories/office-supplies/dictaphones/olympus-v415121se000-digital-voice-recorder-10212235-pdt.html

£56.49 at the moment.


And I know you said no smartphone but I just bought an old (factory new) smart phone ONLY to be used as an audio recorder. (It's too old to get a decent internet connection) And it cost me £34 on Ebay. The voice recorder app is already in the phone (swipe left to get to page 2 of the apps), and I got it because I already have one of these phones from years back, and the voice recorder has always been great. I'm a songwriter and sing my little ditties into it whenever I think of a new melody. But I've also created 3 hour long recordings with it. (I wanted a spare, and too lazy to swap batteries).

It's very easy to use as a voice recorder. No messing with SIM cards or SD cards. And couldn't be simpler to download to a laptop. Just use the USB cable and File Manager on a PC.

It's this one, the Samsung S3 Mini, and it really was brand new for only £33.99
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/393233616675

spurdog1

Thank you for your considerable thoughtful message (and thanks for the patience of sticking with me).

My wife has had a colourful past and it seemed the easiest would be to use a gadget (he groans) as simple as possible.

I was looking at the below
https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/computing-accessories/office-supplies/dictaphones/sony-icd-px240-digital-voice-recorder-black-10081850-pdt.html
As little controls (switches) as poss, this may have enough hours, and with a little effort i could convert it to text through my laptop, I feel sure that i can manage. I wonder if there is enough hours, i could easily buy a more expensive £20.00 more (for 1000 hours), but simplicity is the key. "start"(recording) "stop".

Anyway, thanks again. Much appreciated

GDB2222

spurdog1 said:

Thank you for your considerable thoughtful message (and thanks for the patience of sticking with me).

My wife has had a colourful past and it seemed the easiest would be to use a gadget (he groans) as simple as possible.

I was looking at the below
https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/computing-accessories/office-supplies/dictaphones/sony-icd-px240-digital-voice-recorder-black-10081850-pdt.html
As little controls (switches) as poss, this may have enough hours, and with a little effort i could convert it to text through my laptop, I feel sure that i can manage. I wonder if there is enough hours, i could easily buy a more expensive £20.00 more (for 1000 hours), but simplicity is the key. "start"(recording) "stop".

Anyway, thanks again. Much appreciated

I'm sure that's fine for the job. You should only use that device for the initial recording. Then you need to copy it onto your laptop, and then back up to the cloud. And maybe another backup onto a USB drive. 

So, I would set up a pretty rigid system where your wife records an hour or two, you copy that onto the laptop, you test that copy, give it a meaningful name, and you back it up to two places.

Then, you delete the recording on the handheld device. Otherwise, even if the device is big enough to hold 1000 hours, you end up with hundreds of individual files, only distinguished by time and date of recording.

Just imagine for a moment that your wife recorded 1000 hours of her biography onto a little handheld device, without backups.  And then it got stolen, or someone sat on it, or poured a cup of coffee over it. 

GDB2222

"This will be her life story, so plenty of storage (I've seen 1000-2000 hours)"

That's one helluva magnum opus! Most audiobooks are 5-10 hours. Is she really going to dictate for 1000+ hours?

And who is going to listen to it? That's 40 hours a week for 25 weeks. 

Langtang

spurdog1 said:

Thank you for your considerable thoughtful message (and thanks for the patience of sticking with me).

My wife has had a colourful past and it seemed the easiest would be to use a gadget (he groans) as simple as possible.

I was looking at the below
https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/computing-accessories/office-supplies/dictaphones/sony-icd-px240-digital-voice-recorder-black-10081850-pdt.html
As little controls (switches) as poss, this may have enough hours, and with a little effort i could convert it to text through my laptop, I feel sure that i can manage. I wonder if there is enough hours, i could easily buy a more expensive £20.00 more (for 1000 hours), but simplicity is the key. "start"(recording) "stop".

Anyway, thanks again. Much appreciated

I was going to mention Olympus or Sony but you beat me to it. Remember that the 1000 hour capacity is at the lowest resolution possible (8kbps). I'm not sure what audiobooks are recorded at, but I'd be inclined to record at a higher resolution (128kbps) to guarantee clarity. This would mean sacrificing recording capacity (from 1000+ hours down to 65 - still plenty if you back  up regularly)

spurdog1

GDB2222 said:

"This will be her life story, so plenty of storage (I've seen 1000-2000 hours)"

That's one helluva magnum opus! Most audiobooks are 5-10 hours. Is she really going to dictate for 1000+ hours?

And who is going to listen to it? That's 40 hours a week for 25 weeks. 

Thank you both for your comments, yes listening to a book, something i've never done (he says feeling old). Sony should be ample.
Thank you Langtang also