Nice Unit
Written: Dec 11 '03
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Pros: VCR-like timer. Comes with everything!
Cons: A bit hard to read the screen.
The Bottom Line: A very nice unit at a great eBay price.
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| frede's Full Review: Cubig DVR/CVR-L210 (16 MB, 9 Hours) Handheld Digit... |
I do not have experience with other digital voice recorders, so this opinion is product specific. I had never heard of the Korean company, CuBig, but their importer has a site at www.cubig.com.
Price / features are what drew me to the CuBig. The two features most important to me are Long Play to 9 hours, the timer, and the USB connection. Ok, I’m a ‘Coast To Coast’ radio Junkie (1am to 5am daily in the Eastern time zone) and I wanted a way to record shows while I sleep- and save some that are of particular interest. During the day I want to make voice notes and thought the folders would be really helpful.
The CuBig comes with everything; including a telephone adapter box and cables from the box to the phone and box to the recorder. A hand strap, earphone, external mic (there is an internal mic as well), USB cord, batteries, and software CD. The batteries certainly weren't the best but at least get you going so you can record a reminder to buy good batteries. :)
The 41 page manual is fairly well written but obviously by someone with whom English is not their first language. The illustrations are excellent.
The L210 is about an inch longer and a little thicker than a BIC lighter - and only a little heavier. It feels nice in the hand and people can’t see it, or at least recognize it as a voice recorder.
What a miracle of engineering.
The basic features: USB transfer to and from the recorder, 6 folders of 99 messages each, repeat, voice operated recording, 2 alarms, vcr style timed record and playback, index mark in messages, scan function plays first 5 seconds of messages, digital volume control, and clock/calendar. The LCD screen is a bit small for my old eyes, but from the excellent diagram in the manual I quickly learned what the 'spots' mean even if I can’t exactly read them.
Functionally, it works great. Standard Speed @ 4.5 hours is better quality than Long Play @ 9 hours. Long Play is very understandable. The 6 folder system is convenient. Overall this little unit has a ton of features and nine buttons, not counting volume up and down. As you can imagine some of the features such as setting the time clock are a bit complicated. But- daily operation is both easy and intuitive. It takes just a few minutes to come up to speed.
During software installation to WinXP Home I encountered some strange messages but the software did seemingly install correctly the first time anyway. Downloading / Uploading to my pc works perfectly. One small improvement that could be made is to allow renaming existing audio files on the pc, while in the transfer software, just before uploading. Right click doesn’t allow for it.
The software allows for translation from a .vwd file, native to the CuBig to a wav file (and back). I find the translated .wav file to be much larger than the .vwd and while the .wav is clearly understandable, it is not as good quality. There is also a small editing application that makes no sense to me.
The unit seems to be rather sensitive to batteries. The brand of battery I’ve been using for different electronics does not provide the advertised 10 hours record / 8 hours playback Ironically, Panasonic Heavy Duty Alkalines I bought at a discount store at ˝ the cost of my regular brand seem to work just fine and do provide the advertised battery life. When you replace batteries, the clock needs to be reset as there is no clock backup. (To be clear, all messages ARE saved however.) Setting the clock and the timer are a bit tricky because the entry function times out rather quickly and you have to start over. I made crib notes to help me do it faster than reading the manual.
All in all I give the CuBig L210 an 8 or a 9. With other units you’ll pay more for less in my opinion. This CuBig does what I need it to do (and more) and I’m now a very happy Coast To Coast Junkie that gets a good night’s sleep.
I think you’ll be happy too.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 41 / eBay
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Epinions.com ID:
frede
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Reviews written: 2
Trusted by: 0 members
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