I am trying to get my clients away from microcassette tapes. Lately we've had a lot of tape failures, etc. They do not want to give up the freedom of a hand held recorder so I've been looking at the digital hand helds, specifically the Olympus DS3000. Is this a good product? Can anyone recommend anything else?

Also, regarding wav pedals and software. Can someone recommend a reliable product?

My clients would be emailing the .wav files to me. I realize these would need to be encrypted. Does the wav pedal software do this automatically or will I need some other software? Can anyone recommend a user friendly software?

Any help you could give would be greatly appreciated. I want to get out of the dark ages of tapes and try to get away from pick up and delivery each day.

Thank you!
Kathy

Also as far as sending wav files, I have found the best solution in Hypersend. Not only are your files encrypted (before they leave your computer) they do not limit the size of your attachments. You will find E-Mail an absolute disaster due to mailbox limits -- and it is not HIPAA compliant!! (Hypersend does have a small but reasonable charge for their service.)

My only advice on the wav pedals to get one that is compatible with different formats in the event that you wish to change portable recorders in the future.

Good luck!

Thanks for responding. I'm hoping to get some more feedback before I make a decision on which way to go. I will look into Hypersend. That sounds like a pretty good way to go. I'm thinking about ordering the WAV pedal that was referred to in another post. Not being experienced in this I'm not sure if this is good or bad.

Thanks again, and good luck in your search for reliable digital recorders!

Kathy

Thanks for responding. I did call your number late today and left a message on your voice mail. Hopefully you will receive it and contact me tomorrow.

In the meantime, I'm still researching as to what the best product is for what I'm trying to achieve.

Thanks again!
Kathy

I like the Olympus DSS format the best. It creates the smallest and clearest files and any player on the market will play DSS. A DSS file takes up about 50k per minute of dictation. Most e-mail boxes will hold at least 3000k (3 mb) at a time. That gives you a capacity of 60 minutes of dictation every time you check your e-mail. If you leave your e-mail on all day and have it set to check every 10-15 minutes it will never fill up, unless someone sends you an e-mail bigger than 3 megabytes.

There are many WAV player vendors. Here's a list and some links to check out, in addition to the one Bill provided. All of these play DSS files and more. Most, if not all, handhelds come with software to convert their compressed proprietary files to WAV format.

ExpressScribe at http://www.nch.com.au/scribe/ is free. You have to buy the footpedal. There is a list of the file types it plays at the page above. According to the page it also works with Sony handhelds...

WAVPlayer at http://www.bytescribe.com costs $149 and comes with a serial footpedal. Again, a list of file formats is available from the WAVPlayer page.

GearPlayer at http://www.transcriptiongear.com/products/gearplayer/ has a downloadable demo. Costs $169 with a serial footpedal.

Start/Stop is another popular one. It can be found at: http://www.startstop.com/Transcription.htm it costs $199.

There are many encryption/transfer options available to you. Hypersend is one and I hear it's quite good. PGP is the most popular encryption program, and it's free. There are many other good encryption programs that are free and some that are not. I've written an encryption program also, if you're interested. It does some things the others don't, but it's not free.

I hope this information is helpful to you in your search for the ultimate digital dictation system.

Mike DeTuri

[ 10-22-2002: Message edited by: Mike ]

Thanks for taking the time to respond. I will check out the links you provided. I have decided to go with the Olympus brand, now I just have to find the best place to purchase it from. I also checked out Hypersend and so far I liked what I read. Seems fairly simple to use (technically challenged office staff as well as myself!).

Now the only thing left is the WAV pedal. I'm off to do some more research.

BTW, what does PGP stand for and where can I find this? Also, regarding your program, do you have a website so I can check out your program?

Thanks again, I really appreciate your help.

Kathy

Unfortunately, I learned by trial and error. I recently invested in a new wav player from Bytescribe (and I was able to get the USB which I desired).

Good luck!!

Kathy, PGP stands for Pretty Good Privacy. You can download the free version at http://www.pgp.com. It's free for personal use. The commercial version for business use costs $70. I'm sure they have the differences between the two posted somewhere on the site.

You can find out more about my encryption program at my web page http://www.deturi.com. I just released version 2.0 and redid the online help files and tutorial pages. MEP is on the Programs page.

Since I seem to be in shameless plug mode anyway I might as well mention that I posted my Do-It-Yourself ASP article to my site as well. It's in the Writing section and gives you step-by-step instructions on how to securely upload encrypted files to an FTP server and distribute them among your MTs and clients.

Okay, I'm done now.

Mike DeTuri

[ 10-23-2002: Message edited by: Mike ]

I just feel it was way too expensive ($400) for what it was offering. I was told that is was only meant as an add-on to their more in-depth VoiceFlow system. I just really feel as though our local dealer didn't do us any favors when he sold us this PlayAll unit. I only wished I had done my research on this Message Center first in order to see that there were other options out there.

[ 10-29-2002: Message edited by: Julie W8 ]