Looking for advice on recording conversations and uploading

[beth]

I need a way to record many, many hours of conversations in a variety of environments- mostly conversations happening in a group. I don't really care about music recording or playing, but I need a way to transfer the conversations to my PC (Win XP). With luck, I'll find a way to use something like Dragon Naturally Speaking to convert the sound files to text.

Minidisc sounds good since I can carry around as many discs as I need; I'll be doing many hours of recording in one session. However, I'm confused about file transfers. I saw the article on "Portable Recorders with Uploading Facilities"- which said that there wasn't any way to upload files from minidiscs, but it seems in at least one of the threads here, that isn't the case.

If minidisc isn't a good way to do this, can anyone suggest some other technology I should be looking at? I have about $400 that I can spend, but the less the better. I need portability and a recording time of at least 8 hours per session.

Thanks for any suggestions.

Beth

[KJ_Palmer]

The current minidisc units aren't very good for "uploading" to PC. It can be done, but only in real time.

A much better bet would be to wait for the new Hi-MD units, due for release very soon (April in the States). These would offer you the upload facilities you want.

Look for the MZ-NH700 as the cheapest unit with a mic-in. The NH900 would be even better.

[beth]

Thanks for the advice, Kevin. I'll keep an eye out!

[beth]

One more question- is this something that I should use an external mic with? I know that with cassette recorders, an external mic helps a lot with tape hiss, it is the same with minidiscs?