I got a UX80 at BIC Camera in Yokohama today. The saleslady reduced the price from 19,800 yen to 16,500 when I showed her a 14,500 yen online price. So, I paid a little less than USD150 for this.
Mine has a Japanese interface, and the interface does NOT have a language selector, though it is not too difficult if you check SONY's website and download the Users Manual and compare with the Japanese User's Manual. Maybe the firmware can be flashed to another language version????
It can record from the built-in stereo mic, or an external mic, or auxiliary (I guess this would be 'line-in').
I got this to record a dream journal. I can wake up, groggily take the UX80 and press one button. It wakes up, the LCD screen lights up, and it begins recording after a second or so. I press the next button down to stop the recording. It shuts off automatically a few minutes later.
The USB port cover is not attached. I don7t think it would be easily lost, but it is a slight concern . . .
I've avoided SONY products because of their extreme copy protection/DRM/crippling... till this device. This is, as far as I can tell, a USB mass storage device, but SONY has chosen to call this "USB Direct". So, even when SONY does the right thing and conforms to standards, they still can't use the same label everyone else uses.
The highest quality recording is ST (stereo). It is 44.1KHz @ 192kbps. You'll get 24 hours and 10 minutes with that on the 2GB UX80. This sounds great. STSP (stereo Standard Play) is 44.1KHz/128kbps mp3 and 36 hours 20 minutes. SP is mono Standard Play -- 44.1KHz/32kbps with 145 hours and 20 minutes recording time. This one sounds OK for voice. There are two other recording modes, but I don't find the quality so useful, especially when the battery life varies between 9 and 13 hours. It will apparently run off of a USB power brick and record perhaps making the 581 hour 20 minute 11.025KHz @ 8kbps mono LP mode of some use.
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I got a UX80 at BIC Camera in Yokohama today. The saleslady reduced the price from 19,800 yen to 16,500 when I showed her a 14,500 yen online price. So, I paid a little less than USD150 for this.
Mine has a Japanese interface, and the interface does NOT have a language selector, though it is not too difficult if you check SONY's website and download the Users Manual and compare with the Japanese User's Manual. Maybe the firmware can be flashed to another language version????
It can record from the built-in stereo mic, or an external mic, or auxiliary (I guess this would be 'line-in').
I got this to record a dream journal. I can wake up, groggily take the UX80 and press one button. It wakes up, the LCD screen lights up, and it begins recording after a second or so. I press the next button down to stop the recording. It shuts off automatically a few minutes later.
The USB port cover is not attached. I don7t think it would be easily lost, but it is a slight concern . . .
It also works with linux fine :-)
A followup for search sake:
I've avoided SONY products because of their extreme copy protection/DRM/crippling... till this device. This is, as far as I can tell, a USB mass storage device, but SONY has chosen to call this "USB Direct". So, even when SONY does the right thing and conforms to standards, they still can't use the same label everyone else uses.
The highest quality recording is ST (stereo). It is 44.1KHz @ 192kbps. You'll get 24 hours and 10 minutes with that on the 2GB UX80. This sounds great.
STSP (stereo Standard Play) is 44.1KHz/128kbps mp3 and 36 hours 20 minutes.
SP is mono Standard Play -- 44.1KHz/32kbps with 145 hours and 20 minutes recording time. This one sounds OK for voice.
There are two other recording modes, but I don't find the quality so useful, especially when the battery life varies between 9 and 13 hours. It will apparently run off of a USB power brick and record perhaps making the 581 hour 20 minute 11.025KHz @ 8kbps mono LP mode of some use.
Greg
If it works with Linux, does it mean it'll work with a Mac too?
Thanks :)