River City Select

TV watchers who want to record their programs for later watching will need either a DVD recorder or a personal video recorder (PVR). Both the industry and buyers use DVR (digital video recorder) and PVR interchangeably. They are both digital TV recorders. If only the choice were that simple. In fact, this choice may be tougher than another you lately made, choosing the right value from all those cheap LCD TVs and plasma TVs that were available on the market.

Most people want to record television with little fuss, and then watch it later (time-shift). If that sounds like you, then you will want to stay clear from purchasing a DVD recorder. They have their place in home entertainment, but they are in general more trouble than they are worth to the casual user. The problem is that most TV watchers tend to archive. DVD recorders are not a exceptionally commodious archiving tool for televisions, and they only handle two hours of quality recording at a time. It is possible to increase that to four hours but you do so at the cost of effigy quality.

PVR and DVR units are dissimilar than DVD recorders are in that they use an internal hard drive much the way that a computer does. The greatest aspect of this is that mechanical HDDs have gotten exceedingly inexpensive recently. Even basic PVR units brag capacities from 100-250 hours. While 250 hours applied to be the maximum, it has become mutual to see appliances with vastly more space using one or more 1-2TB hard drives.

Many innovative DVR units include a DVD player as well as multiple TV tuners. Consumers may also buy combining units if they like the idea of the DVD recorder. These units give all the gains of the DVD recorder without any of the drawbacks. However, there is a limitation. Due to size and cost constraints, numerous makers include just one TV tuner in these combo units.

We highly suggest that you shop around and even pay a little extra in order to have that second TV tuner. Without it, you are stuck watching whatsoever it is that you are recording. That may not seem so bad at first. However, numerous times you will use your PVR incisively because two programs are playing simultaneously. By buying a unit with just one tuner, you are gravely limiting the usefulness of your DVR.

You may save cash a couple of ways. One, buy refurbished. Many persons are affrighted to do so, but if you stick with a known brand and a reputable outlet, you’re getting a like-new, warrantied device. Secondly, it is in general easy to upgrade the HDD in these devices. Therefore, you may buy the unit you want in it is least costly configuration and then upgrade it later when you see a good deal on hard drivers.

What’s in the Box
Microphone, adapter to convert from monaural 3.5 mm mini-plug to stereo 3.5 mm mini-plug, and monaural 3.5 mm mini-plug to monaural 2.5 mm mini-plug adapter.

Digital Recording Devices Image

Digital Recording Devices Picture

Digital Recording Devices Image

Digital Recording Devices Picture

Most helpful customer reviews

205 of 206 people found the following review helpful.
works almost flawlessly
By gonzoriffic
i needed to record a cell phone conversation and this was the absolute cheapest way to do it. the earpiece has a microphone on the opposite side that records what is being said by whomever you’re talking to, plus your voice (a bit louder). i bought it friday and it got to my house by monday. amazing.

one thing: this mic doesn’t have its own power source, so whatever recording device you plug it into must be able to supply power. i used an olympus VN-2100 digital recorder and it worked almost flawlessly. i say almost because the mic doesn’t record in stereo, it records in mono. but the record volume is loud and comes out very very clear even if the earpiece/mic isn’t right on top of the phone receiver.

you will not be able to do this any better for the money. a lot of online spy shops are charging $200 or more for this same function. i got this mic (which will record cell phone and land line conversations) plus a digital recorder for under $50.

123 of 123 people found the following review helpful.
Simple device. Works great.
By crookdimwit
I’m a writer, and I spent way too much time trying to find a good solution for recording phone calls — everything from Skype to Radio Shack gadgets that had to get connected through an analog phone. When I ordered this, I was actually stunned with how simply it works, and how well. I use it with my cell or home phones and it does the job perfectly. It’s one of those things that seems so simple, you wonder why no one else came up with this solution sooner. I can’t recommend this highly enough.

87 of 87 people found the following review helpful.
Does the job and then some… And, it could do more.
By Kemo Sabe
I bought this to use with the Olympus DS series recorders, but it should work with most recorders that have inputs. It does come with adapters for mono, stereo, and mini-jack, and, of course you can buy additional adapters…

The phone recording works fine. Have confidence that it’s working and remember to keep your own voice low to keep more of a balance in the recording. Sometimes, too, the playback on the computer turns out to be more balanced and better sounding than the sound on the device’s own speaker.

And, as a bonus, you may want to use this mic for interviews rather than the tie-clip mic or the RS29. With the TP7 in your ear, it records people speaking next to you, or, across from you, very well.

Bottom line, if I only bought one accessory for recording with a DS recorder, this might be my first and only pick.

If it had a “pause” feature, I’d bump my review from four stars to six….

See all 187 customer reviews…