Should I buy a DIGITAL VOICE RECORDER or MP3 player with voice recording capabilities?

Okay well if you should go with buying an MP3 player, I would get a Creative Zen Vision: M, this has FM radio already on the player no extra stuff to buy unlike an iPod where you have to be an FM transmitter, and it has a microphone on it. The audio quality of the recorder isn't as great but it does record classroom settings. I've used my Zen Vision M to record many class room sessions. Plus with it's 30GB hard drive, you can also get 60GB and 80GB of this player as well if you want it bigger.

The player lets you record 10 hours in one sitting. Meaning you can record for 10 hours straight, but I do think the battery dies after 8 hours of use. My classes usually go to 3 hours and 30 minutes, and it records all of them. Plus you can transfer the files to your computer through the USB cable as well. With my player I've recorded almost 3 weeks of classes.

Also the files are in WAV format but they don't even take up a lot of space. I do think it's 1MB for every minute. So if you record 1 hour of recording it will be 60MB.

I've never really used a Digital Voice Recorder, I'm not sure how the quality is on those. But if you have the money to buy an MP3 player then I would go with the Zen Vision: M, but if you just want to spend a few bucks I would go with a DVR.

P.S - Do NOT get an iPod because those break easily.

I had the same problem for studying for promotions. I had a "dvr" but then had to download it, convert it to wav. file, then had to convert that to mp3 or wma. I bought a sansa e250 player. it works awesome!! it has a 2GB capacity and has a slot to expand however big of a micro SD card you can find. the 2GB micro SD card I have works fine. The quality is just as good and there are waaaay less steps in between step #1 and finished product. plus it's a great video/fm/photo/whatever else player. They go for about $100 for the 250 and the 260 (4 or 6 GB) is about $130. hope this helps.

I own the SanDisk Sansa e270 with 6GB. It can't hold movies longer than 12 minutes, but it can hold music videos and home made videos in mpeg format. The quality is really good, but it mostly depends on the movie quality. From the music videos I have watched on it, the quality is crystal clear, and the sound quality is perfect. I just have to say, you are choosing a good music player! But don't worry, it has an expandable memory slot that takes micro SD cards. But the micro SD cards can only hold music, so put all the videos and photos on the player itself, then put all your music on the micro SD card.

if you can dump the 20hours max of voice before you use it again that is a cost effective solution, however if you use it for music as well you will run into memory issues. best is to get a iPod and the voice recorder jump unit if you want everything. Also see if you can get the prof to FM transmit so you can record him. If you are up front with them most will do what they can to help.