[Eug Wanker]

A friend of mine has a Sony 12" laptop she's beginning to hate because the keyboard is so small. (I tried it. It feels like it's built for little kids. Very irritating to use.) She wants to get a small laptop so I suggested an iBook 1.07. She's interested, but uses a Sony digital voice recorder with memory stick, and which records files in .MSV format. With a $20 multi-format media reader I can access and transfer over her memory stick files just fine, but Sony does not supply a Mac compatible .MSV reader, so I can't do anything with the files. I can't seem to find a 3rd party .MSV reader either.

Does anyone know of such a reader, or a converter to .wav or something?

This is one of the main things holding her back, besides the fact that she's never used a Mac before. Her main requirements are compatibility with the voice recorder, her Clie, and the ability to run Office. The Clie is covered by iSync, and Office is... Office.

The other main option she's seen is a Pentium M 12" Sony which costs twice as much as the iBook, so obviously she's not too keen on that either.

[Eug]

Bump for a potential Sony->Apple switcher...

[mitchell_pgh]

OK...

Follow me on this one...

.MSV is this type of file_ADPCM: For ICD-MS1
http://products.sel.sony.com/SEL/ser...rt_instr.shtml

(this may be an obvious question, but did you try Quicktime directly? It says it has a ADPCM codec installed, but it also says MS ADPCM codec so they may be different.
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/produ...fications.html

MSV file (Memory Stick Voice file/file extension: *.msv) The MSV file is a sound file format used in recording messages on the Memory Stick IC recorder ICD-MS1.
http://www.sel.sony.com/SEL/service/dvp203e_instr.shtml

[NOTE, SONY DOESN'T SUPPORT THE MAC PLATFORM]

try this
http://www.itakura.nuee.nagoya-u.ac..../download.html

Other then that, could you submit the voice recorder model?

[mitchell_pgh]

Could you post a small sample file?

I would love to test for you.

[Eug]

Stupid me, I forgot to keep a copy of one of the .MSV files. I'll try to get it this week.

FWIW, the files are shown in the Finder with a blank icon. OS X doesn't associatiate QT with those files. (I have QT 6.5.1.)

[Socially Awkward Solo]

Perhaps since she is getting a laptop to spend another $50 and get a non proprietary sony recorder.

[mitchell_pgh]

Originally posted by Socially Awkward Solo:
Perhaps since she is getting a laptop to spend another $50 and get a non proprietary sony recorder.

Hands down the best idea I've heard (wouldn't MP3 just be a dream vs. some crazy sony format nobody has ever heard of), but I'm guessing it's more of an issue of being able to get the old one.

With the old computer, download all of them and convert them to wav files.

[Eug Wanker]

Originally posted by Socially Awkward Solo:
Perhaps since she is getting a laptop to spend another $50 and get a non proprietary sony recorder.

I think her voice recorder cost several hundred bux. But yeah, I've been planning on checking to see what else is available.

It looks like this:



Personally I think it costs FAR too much, but what can I say.

[mitchell_pgh]

Originally posted by Eug Wanker:
I think her voice recorder cost several hundred bux. But yeah, I've been planning on checking to see what else is available.

It looks like this:



Personally I think it costs FAR too much, but what can I say.

My logic is, if the Sony laptop is 2X more then the iBook, Get the iBook and pick up a new MP3 recorder. You are still saving money AND can tell her that she could also share the recordings with others (should she choose to do so)

Also, tell her that the .msv format may disappear someday or become poorly supported (you never know)

[Socially Awkward Solo]

Easy, Sell the Sony Laptop, sell the damn recorder and with the money get an iBook and better cheaper voice recorder. Hell, tell her to get an iPod and the recorder if she has to.

[Eug Wanker]

Originally posted by Socially Awkward Solo:
Easy, Sell the Sony Laptop, sell the damn recorder and with the money get an iBook and better cheaper voice recorder. Hell, tell her to get an iPod and the recorder if she has to.

Who's gonna buy a used voice recorder? Actually the thing is quite small and nicely designed. I can see why she likes it, even though I don't think it's worth the price.

[Spliff]

Would this work?

Sony USB .WAV File Player Transcription Kit for USB ports
http://www.sylvansoftware.com/WAVpedal.htm

If not, just buy a copy of Virtual PC and slap that on the iBook.

[Eug Wanker]

Originally posted by Spliff:
Would this work?

Sony USB .WAV File Player Transcription Kit for USB ports
http://www.sylvansoftware.com/WAVpedal.htm

Thanks, but she already has that software. It's Windows only.

If not, just buy a copy of Virtual PC and slap that on the iBook.

VPC is too much of a hassle. Not an option.

[mitchell_pgh]

Originally posted by Eug Wanker:
Who's gonna buy a used voice recorder? Actually the thing is quite small and nicely designed. I can see why she likes it, even though I don't think it's worth the price.

While it may be cool, it's saving everything in a bizarre format which is even worse then WMA.

[Eug Wanker]

Originally posted by mitchell_pgh:
While it may be cool, it's saving everything in a bizarre format which is even worse then WMA.

Yeah, like I said, this is not my choice. However, I'm not going to freak out about her choice of using a memory stick based voice recorder, esp. since it is a nice machine and it worked well with her Vaio so it made sense (to her) at the time.

I'm just trying to figure out a feasible way to allow her to migrate easily to OS X without having her (re-)spend lots of money or deal with inconvenient solutions like VPC.

[Socially Awkward Solo]

Originally posted by Eug Wanker:
Who's gonna buy a used voice recorder?

www.ebay.com

It is not like a used bathing suite.