SONY SUCKS

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It must have been around 2008, just when it came on the market, or soon thereafter, that I got a present of one of these lovely little voice recorders. I had chosen it myself and had specifically requested one from which the files could be digitally transferred to the computer.

The software was quite sophisticated and flexible and I had some fun with it.

All went well, until my computer crashed in 2011 and I got a new one. The original was on Windows XP, but that was going out of fashion at that stage and the new one came with Windows 7 as an operating system.

As you can see from the above illustration that shouldn't have been a problem as Sony had a downloadable driver for that.

Unfortunately that didn't work, any more than it does now with Windows 10 which Microsoft foisted on me when I wasn't paying attention.

So what's the problem. Even where drivers have not been fully updated Windows has an option to download them and run the software in a form compatible with the earlier versions.

The trap was that both the Windows 7 and 10 on my machine were 64 bit versions and Sony only catered for 32 bit versions. So, short of copying the recordings onto the computer via an analogue cable (out the earphone and in the mic) and risk losing quality, my recorder is now effectively useless.

There is a note covering this in the manual if you have your microscope handy (above).

And just to nail their colours to the mast, Sony have the files stored in proprietary (ie their own) format, and anyway, the recorder can only speak to the computer via their software which doesn't now recognise it.

No question of simply having the recorder treatable like a straight external drive/USB stick. Not on your nanny.

Such contempt for the customer is a disgrace and that is why Sony sucks.