TiVo for radio, but lousy recording quality
Written: Dec 26 '03
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Pros: Timed recording of radio programs
Cons: Quality; formats; built-in speaker
The Bottom Line: This device may appeal to some, but I'm disappointed in the sound quality. Research carefully before spending the money.
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| f8ster's Full Review: Pogo Radio YourWay (128MB) MP3 Player |
This device allows you to schedule up to 10 timed AM/FM recordings. It's sort of a TiVo for radio. It's most useful if you want to record, say, a particular radio station from 6-10am Monday-Friday.
When playing back, you may fast-forward through commercials. You may also use the included software to transfer the recorded files to your PC, or to transfer MP3s to/from the device.
The antenna goes into the headphone jack. Headphones also act as an antenna when you're using them.
One very disappointing feature: the radio broadcasts are all recorded at a very low quality 16KHz. The specs imply that there's a way to up this to 32KHz (which cuts your storage time in half, of course), but I find no mention of it online or in the manual. The playback sounds OK through the (barely adequate) little speaker in the device, but pretty bad when played back on the PC.
Another feature I dislike: the recorded files are in RVF format. The software allows RVF-to-WAV conversion, but no RVF-to-MP3. (Other RVF to MP3 conversion utilities may be found, though.) However, the low quality makes the radio recordings fairly unsuitable for converting and transferring to another player like an iPod anyway.
I suspect this device will appeal to a limited audience: those that just want to record their Howard Stern or Rush Limbaugh and listen to it at their leisure, and don't care about sound quality. Otherwise, this device is somewhat of a letdown.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 199
Recommended for: Audio Book Listeners - Download Audio Books and Radio Programs
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Epinions.com ID:
f8ster
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Location: Camas, WA, USA
Reviews written: 16
Trusted by: 1 member
About Me:
Consumer electronics enthusiast
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