iPod for recording class lectures?

[AgentZap]

I noticed the apple site has microphone attachments for iPod and says you can use it to record seminars etc.

I have some 3 hour lecture classes that I want to record, but I see some iffy reviews on the quality of the mic attachments they are selling.

Is anyone using their iPod for this purpose? Which attachment? How has the quality been in a small room, large room, etc?

I have a small sony dv cam that I've used for this purpose because it has an amazing microphone, but the tapes only hold an hour and then I have to convert to wav or mp3 later.

I have a feeling the mic's they have for iPods are nowhere near as the Sony mic I have in my camcorder at picking up audio in a big room.

 

[radioouman]

does ipod use any audio compression? If not, the lecture will likely be VERY quiet.

 

[astrosfan90]

Interesting...without knowing anything about the hardware in question and based solely on my experience with Apple and its gadgets (I've owned/used their computers since the Mac SE way back in the day), I'd have to say that it would likely work well in a room where there isn't a problem hearing the prof (ie, small room, loud prof, or large room with a nice sound system), but you'd most likely lose anything that wasn't loud or directed towards the mic--ie student questions, or quiet profs/less than ideal acoustics. My vote is to stick with the Sony DV Cam and converting to an iPod-compatible format, at least for now. If this catches on, someone may work to improve it, and you may even see schools encouraging it (didn't Duke University hand out iPods to incoming freshman full of audio material for classes?), but for the moment it sounds like a case of the first gen of some neat new gadget that won't work too well.

 

[hevnsnt]

http://ipod.hackaday.com/entry/1234000147025394/

 

[AgentZap]

yep after reading the material it would appear I am better off staying with the camcorder method and just bring extra tapes