Ease of on-the-fly recording on x20

[Subluka]

I'm very interested in the x20 but I have a question I was hoping someone with one could help me out with.

I have a need to make a number of voice recordings through the day. It's for boring medical reasons, and the quicker and easier, the better. So far I've been using a palm zire72 for dictation but I'm fed up with it's big size and i'd like to migrate to a dedicated dmp for my dictating and music needs.

My question is, how much fiddling is it to make an audio dictation via the x20 and the the inbuilt mic? Ideally there would be a handy record button, like most competitors: but I keep coming back to the x20 as my choice, if it can be used quickly and reliably as a voice recorder without digging through menues and settings etc.

I understand it takes a double hit of the play button while on "recordings" menu item. But:
- does the menu item stay the same between power on/offs? (ie, will it reliably be on "recordings" if used a few hours ago for recording?)
- does it remember whether you are using the mic or line-in, as a permanent setting?
- can you take another recording straightaway by hitting/doublehitting the play button, if you have just finished a previous recording?

I'd really appreciate if someone might know or have a fiddle to see how it all works.

[Preddy]

The record function is very easy to start. Just go to the menu and select recording. Only a single hit on the play button and the recording starts.
The player will not be turned off while recording. You can set the player on 'hold' to avoid it stops recording when accidently a button is pressed.
voice-in is a permanent setting.
The recording stops when pressing play/pause once. It than saves the recording in 2 seconds (this is by a recording of 1 minute, might be longer when recording longer). The mp3-player stays in record mode after it, and you can make a second recording after those 2 seconds.

Further for quality: I think the quality is ok, when recording a conversation you can hear every word. Perhaps it's a bit less good when you keep the mp3-player in your pocket.

When using the X20 also as a mp3-player/ mp4-player I think it's recommend to have it, otherwise you can better look for a special build voice recorder.

[Subluka]

Preddy, thanks alot for your helpful comments.

[MisterMiagi]

Just something you might be interested to know: the X20 isn't really "instant on". It takes a good 5-10 seconds to boot up the device when you first turn it on. If that's going to slow you down, you might want to play with one first to see if it's bad enough to bother you.

That said, once it's on it's a dead cinch to record, and I like it a lot. I also use the line-in for musical note taking with my guitar. Line in functionality on this device sold it for me 100% - it's fantastic, and the sound quality is very acceptable indeed.

[Subluka]

Line in is also a very compelling feature for me too. Good to hear it works nicely.

The startup - that may be a bit of a pain. Do you think it's related to the amount of files on the unit, and whether there's a card inserted?
When you turn it on, does the unit always return to a default screen, or does it resume from whatever screen you were on when it turned off?

bit OT here but a strange story:
Yesterday I went to Dick Smith hoping to fiddle with a unit - they didn't even have them - but as I stood there another customer came up and said to me "you know which mp3 player you should get?" He pulled out a big leather case and reached in - even before I saw it I said - "thats an x20 right?" - and it was.

So I got to see it in action a little but I didn't want to touch it in case something went wrong with it - obviously his pride and joy. We rabbited on for a bit but I didn't resolve if it would work for me "hands on". A shame because the JB hifi I've tried don't seem prepared to even turn them on to demo them. Anyone know of a store near Melbourne that will properly demo an x20 for me?

[Preddy]

Updated info on start up: it's not 10 sec, but only 5 seconds (this was with 400 songs+ multiple movies, total size 2 GB). It takes 3 seconds to hold the startup button be4 it starts up, 2 seconds for loading.

Whne you start up the player it loads the music playlist, you gotta go to the record mode by menu than.

Know that after you record something and pull off the player, when you put it on next time the player need some extra time to rebuild the library.

[rudycolman]

thnaks i ahd this issue too

[h680]

Camera House in Melbourne have the x20, and are willing to demonstrate it

[reverendbert]

If you have a memory card in the X20, everytime you turn it off, it wants to rebuild the library again. For each and every song.