Product Review – RCA VR5220-A Digital Voice Recorder

Where is it made? Thanks.

It appears to have been made in China.

You seem to be quite the whiner. Mine works perfect. My fingers are normal size, so sliding the USB in and out are not a problem. Linux sucks. To include Linux compatability, the price of the recorder would have exceeded marketability. The same goes for the manual. The manual is available online.

Thank you for your insightful commentary.

I too wish it worked on Linux. I’ve products before(Sony minidisc) that required either software to extract the recordings or Windows. It’s not worth it. I’ll be taking it back and trying to find one that does work on Linux.

How do you save the audio recording to a cd to be saved?

The users manual can be downloaded here.

I personally use Windows on the laptop that I use the voice recorder for (school) however Linux would be great… My biggest problem is that it doesnt seem to mount to Windows Vista Premium or Ultimate. Nothing happens when I plug it in, thought maybe the port was bad at first but my external works fine on that specific port. Any help would be great… Oh yeah, I almost forgot… R.S.S. … Why someone would state a opinion as fact is nothing short of idiotatic… Just my $0.02 worth

I have a friend who has one and she says she keeps getting an “error” message when she tries to upload her audio files to the computer.I think she has Vista.Any help would be greatly appreciated!

How’s the sound quality? I mainly want to use it to record classroom lectures. Thanks.

The sound quality, in my experience, is excellent.

Thanks, and you’re right. I bought it and have used it. The sound quality is fantastic at both SP (35 hrs) & HQ (17 hrs), but LP quality (200 hrs) isn’t so great. However, this was a great deal, a great value for $30.

how do I get more than 15 hrs of recording sessions? Its not the batteries,and I foramtted it and it says 210 hrs of recording.Is 15 hrs all the dolders hold?

sorry about the spelling,is 15 hrs all the folders can hold?I already formatted it,can anyone help? Thanks

Depending on the file system that the recorder uses, the maximum file size that can be saved on it varies. I don’t have my recorder handy to see what the file system is, but I’m guessing it’s some version of the FAT system which has a 2GB – 4GB maximum file size depending on the type (FAT 16 vs FAT 32). I think this is the problem you’re running into.

More info here.

Seems like I paid about $29 at Walmart in about July. Comes in handy to transfer precious sayings of my children to permanent C drive storage. Have also used it to store VMX msgs off of my phone, church sermons from a pew, and have even found it picks up well thru a breast pocket of a suit jacket. You can trim down and edit an individual file on the device, but I haven’t yet figured out how to do same once its downloaded to the computer.

the system is fat,I have a choice between fat and fat 32,wich holds the most? please let me know.

FAT32 is better, but what file system used is dependant on the file system the recorder can use. I’d make sure the recorder can handle FAT32 before attempting to format it as such. I am not going to recommend you do such a thing. I recommend you consult the manufacturers website and contact them about the issue.

Thanks it does handle fat 32,now I hope it records longer.Thank you!

I need a way to see the soundwaves of my recordings. help please?

I need a way to see the sound waves of my recordings. HELP please!!

I’d look into Audacity. It’s a free, multi-platform audio editor program.

I have the recording saved on my XP computer in wav., exe. and voc file formats but none will burn to a CD with windows media player or nero. Does anyone know how to burn an RCA VR5220 recording to a CD?? Please Help!

You can either burn it was a data file or burn it as an audio CD. In both cases I’d use the .WAV format as a jumping off point. You should be able to use both Windows Media Player and Nero to burn the file in either way. You didn’t mention what specific problem you’re having, but I’d check out the following links: here and here. Consider these a jumping off point.

Hi!
I just bought the VR5220 and I have a MAC. I set the recording mode to HQ, like the instructions said and when I plug it in to the port the recorder appears no where on my desktop or HD!! Please help

Kira, this might help. I don’t know, I don’t own a MAC. I do know that it doesn’t appear to work with Linux though. If you can’t get it to show up in your Mac, you can alternatively use a Win XP computer to download the files and then transfer them to your mac via disc or memory card, etc. You could also contact RCA’s customer support. I’m just a blogger who owns this product. While I’m willing to help as much as I can, they made the product and know more about it than I do. Hope this helped!

Hi Guys,
I have to tell you that you really helped me out tonight. Thank you for posting these tips on using the digital recorder. With your help I was able to find the software to install, find audacity and the mp3 conversion. Thank so much!

You’re welcome Kimberly! I’m glad we could help you!

I have lots of great stuff on my VR5220 that i’d like to get off, howeva I hv Windows Vista, and nothing happens when I plug it into the USB. (it says PCLINK) on the device, but I can’t find the DVM application. the links to the rcaaudiovideo.com do not work. Please help!!!

Sorry for the delay showtyme, check here for the PC software.

I just got the RCA VR5220 today and don’t know much about it yet. I want to use it with a program called American Idol Singer’s Advantage to record my vocals, which are then used to critique and improve my singing. Anyone else using this recorder for singing?

I installed the Digital Voice Manager and it shows up on the computer screen as described in the manual. The problem is all of the control buttons are greyed out and unavailable. When I try to drag a song file into the recorder icon, as soon as the pointer hits anywhere below the bar at the top, the pointer changes to a circle with a slant line through it (in other words, a can’t-do-symbol). Please help.

I have put fresh batteries into my player ten different times now and it won’t power on. Any help?

John, I’d rec you contact RCA customer service. Chris, assuming you have them in correctly and they’re good, it would appear you have something wrong with your unit. If it’s new, exchange it.

I have been trying to open my recorder on my computer. I can hear the audio, but it doesn’t let me save the files on my computer, what am I doing wrong?

I’m having a lot of trouble with mine. I can’t erase any of my files. I’ve press the x button but nothing happens. the file is still there.