Philips Mini Cassette transcriber, still available new in 2021!

[@DanOConnorTech]

The first rule of pricing anything for businesses-v-individual consumers: Jack the price up about 10X. The people in the purchasing department won't care; it's not their money.

[@TechBaffle]

Definitely the case for video conferencing systems!

[@PuchMaxi]

Yes indeed, the same is true for 'Medical' equipment.

[@TonyW79SFV]

B2B pricing (business-to-business). This product was not intended to be marketed to consumers. Same as ENG Betacam SP news cameras, those cost more than the average car at $30,000.

[@straightpipediesel]

@@TechBaffle One business trip for a few days is $1000, easily, more if you consider salaries paid to people sitting on a plane. So video conference manufacturers figured if it saved 20 trips, they're saving the company $20k at least, so we might as well charge that and the company comes out ahead.

[@TechBaffle]

@@straightpipediesel Yep that's true

[@blautens]

When I was in law enforcement I used to have to dictate all my reports on micro cassette. Most police officers enjoyed this, however, since I was a proficient typist, this really was very frustrating. I always felt sorry for the people who had to transcribe my reports so I would try to give them a little greeting or joke at the beginning of every police report. In retrospect that was probably inappropriate, but...I always felt like they might need a little cheering up because they spent 8 hours everyday listening to miserable crime reports.

[@WillOnSomething]

Using it for reports sounds really unnecessary and a pain in the ass, but it IS incredibly useful for detectives performing interrogations

[@cvbabc]

Levity in and of itself is never innappropriate. It's a stress reducer.

[@cate01a]

@Google user why do you and seemingly 8 other people think acab?

[@Chachoes]

god bless you

[@Chachoes]

@Google user this isnt really the time and place to talk about your political ideas

[@miata1492]

For years I worked as a transcriptionist at a word-processing service whose clients were medical doctors. Yes, we used micro-cassette units like those VWL demonstrated (but not the Philips brand). My peers would “save” for me the tapes of the doctors who still had thick accents of their origin country. For me, the foot pedal automatic back-up feature helped immensely when I could not understand what I initially heard, but by playing back the tape several times I “got it.” (We also had a doctor who often fell asleep as she dictated the patient notes.) Later, we switched to a system where doctors called in to an internet site (that recorded their voice notes) and we transcribed the notes from there.

[@spock6692]

That was the time when producers really thought of users and tried to make devices convenient, intuitive and user friendly. They also provided people with good manuals. That time is gone :( . Thank you for this piece of my youth!

[@WarrenPostma]

These are still actively used by police, and by doctors. Transcriptions are prepared for court filings, and for medical record keeping. Tapes are prepared and stenographers prepare the transcripts. In the legal world, an analog recording system with magnetic tapes does not have questions of tampering that would arise if digital means were used.

[@trevorpomroy550]

Absolutely! Also, if properly stored, analog magnetic tape has proven archival capability of at least 30-50 years. I can't say that for any digital medium excepting possibly professionally mastered aluminum (not cd-r or rw) cds. I've heard that the US Library of Congress masters vinyl records for longest term failsafe archives of audio. Is this true?

[@Trusteft]

@@trevorpomroy550 What about M-Disc? Though I am more worried about playback machines than the storage medium.

[@trevorpomroy550]

@@Trusteft Thank you so very much! I was not aware of M-Disc! It sounds by all accounts a great way to make an ultimate master backup of digital data from which a copy could be made if all other conventional backups were to fail in a similar vein to that of the LoC records. The only thing it would lack is the extreme simplicity of recreating a playback machine if a time came that we forgot how. It's strongest advantage is in that it's discs can be read by standard commodity drives right now. Perhaps it is prudent to store several tested but unused machines with the actual archive medium. I don't just mean drives but complete systems, software and all in a way that minimizes the decay of their parts. I myself have made vhs copies of my son's home videos from when he was young. The videos were all taken on smartphone cameras, but I reasoned that over his lifetime many tjings could happen to make them difficult to keep or to play on future machines. I still keep redundant backups of the digital files, but I also keep two unused vhs vcrs and a few parts as well as as several working tvs to connect them to. I reasoned that if tapes from my own childhood have held up, these mightbhave a chance too. 80s vcrs would have been better choices than the ones I have as they were simpler, better documented, and easier to repair by hand with through hole components.

[@MrCh0o]

Which is kind of odd, since you still could capture the sound in digital form, edit and then write onto a new tape, and as long as minimal loss of quality is ensured, seems like there's not much to prevent it

[@spudd-fl8dh]

Love the summer evening insect noise in the background. For a moment I thought my window was open.

[@adamlipsky8010]

As a typist, I used to use two transcribers with footswitch of this type, but older, grey ones. The audio quality was frustrating, especially in the beginning of the tape, I had hard time understanding; I had to use a high-quality Sennheiser headphones with a mono adapter to understand. The automatic recording volume system of the handheld recorders was pathetic, really; it either recorded very quietly or overloaded the tape. Also the rewinding speed was massively different in the beginning and end of tape. I hated the system and once the digital transcription came, I threw the cassette system out. The only advantage was that during recording, the speaker often made a mistake and he himself rewound the tape and over-recorded his mistake with correct words. The digital recorder does not have this system of instant playback and re-record from few seconds ago so the speaker just said "correction, use this:..." and I had to overtype my own typing. Time wasting.

[@tiberiu_nicolae]

I've seen digital systems that allow you to rewind and record over what you just said. I wished it also had an insert option!

[@patrickcardon1643]

Got my doctor still using microcassettes and indeed he keeps rewinding a bit, playing till the end of the phrase he wants to keep and record over the bad part :D always wondered if the quality of the tapes didn't get impacted over time by reusing them all the time

[@adamlipsky8010]

@@patrickcardon1643 In my experience, 20-30 years old cassettes still worked the same as new ones, didn't observe any dropouts or tape getting stuck

[@gayusschwulius8490]

@@tiberiu_nicolae There are digital recorders that have both rewind/overwrite and rewind/insert. For example the Phillips DPM recorders. I recorded my dissertation on one of those, without the insert function this would've been completely impossible.

[@TheViolatorinator]

$1,000 for a little cassette device? Holy shit.

[@nslouka90]

The second you started tearing it apart to diagnose the headphone jack i was thinking: Wait, he didn’t forget about that switch did he?

[@graealex]

Smart design to have a manual switch, so you can leave the headphones plugged in all the time. Utterly stupid design to have that switch beneath the door. I'd argue that only the AR setting (and of course the eject button) belongs behind the cassette door. Even the ABS setting should be normally accessible instead.

[@horrorlostplaces]

They do not forget it, just some people like me hate digital recording. I try so many digital recorders and sometimes they delete or do not write files correct. Do not save recordings or I just press wrong button. Sometimes they have strange digital noises in the recordings or overall bad recordings. I can understand that some people hate digital recorders and prefer the better way to record.

[@gregrorabaugh564]

That fast tape erase feature would have been great during the Watergate era.!!

[@warrenmacdonald1372]

What do you mean WOULD HAVE been great! One of those buttons "accidentally" erased 9 minutes of tape. Whoops!

[@eDoc2020]

Bulk erasers aren't anything new. Swipe the degausser over it and the content will be gone in just a few seconds. The real benefit of the fast eraser is that it's built in and that it also rewinds the tape.

[@Netbug]

Watergate is pretty much the lamest example of corruption imaginable given what has transpired since.

[@CARLiCON]

..reminds me of a tent I bought in the 90s, couldn't find the instructions anywhere, fumbled around for an hour trying to set it up, then found them sewn into the inside of the tent.

[@ozmond]

You’re a diamond in the rough of KZbin

[@scruffythejanitor1969]

Jafar wants to know his location.

[@ozmond]

@@scruffythejanitor1969 who

[@jazeenharal6013]

@@scruffythejanitor1969 hahaha

[@billp7748]

Again, something I wouldn’t normally have an interest in but when Kevin posts a vid, I watch, learn and enjoy!

[@HannuPulli]

This type or corporate or governmental tech are interesting pockets of retro tech. Still alive and well as long as the original investments last. In essence too big to die as the organization still using it are willing to pay the price the manuracturer asks.

[@ARVash]

tapes are hard to beat for archival purposes, so long as you don't put them under a big magnet anyway.

[@robertpucovsky]

The moment with the headphone jack is really reliable. Trying to fix something in the most complex way, only to realize that such a simple problem is causing an unnecessary trouble

[@nodcarillol.6550]

You have a variety of very interesting contents. Glad i found your channel. Youre doing an awesome work. 👌❤️

[@joshm264]

Not all mini cassettes have that sleeve, the one I have on my vintage media shelf is in a case the same as a micro cassette, label and all!

[@matthewbestdfghy]

A thousand dollars that's insane.

[@lemagreengreen]

It is but it's also a very niche product, they won't sell many of these so it's actually surprising it's apparently still profitable enough even at $1000, especially manufacturing in Austria which isn't cheap. It is obsolete, it's amazing it even exists and the only customers will be people replacing existing machines who for some reason don't want to go digital.

[@fluffycritter]

It took the nonsensical wind/rewind buttons to make me realize that “rewind” doesn’t mean “go backwards” but literally just “wind the tape back onto the reel.” Making it a nonsensical verb on any non-tape-based medium.

[@winterwatson6811]

A good example of skeuomorphic language

[@JasonPullara]

You might be surpried to learn this, but these machines are used around the country in smaller courthouses.

[@SianaGearz]

I think that's a good idea, if the system is reliable. Once the tape is recorded, the data isn't usually suddenly lost completely if something happens or for no obvious reason.

[@piwex69]

This totally deserves creating the SD-card based adapter that would mimic the cassette for such use cases. With all audio transduced from and to the tape head and motion sensors for the hubs. I bet some big companies would pay 6-figures to get their dictation system updated this way.

[@fhwolthuis]

Very interesting, I remember them being used in an office I worked about 25 years ago. I think Philips had a large factory in Austria where a lot of cassette related products were produced as I recall seeing "made in Austria" on a lot of Philips boom boxes etc back then. Great video again, Kevin! 👍👍

[@mjouwbuis]

@@pe1dnn the tape recorder business unit survived as part of the telecom and computer group, they even still use 87xx commercial numbers (skus) indicating they were once part of the computer group. Then they were spun off into an independent company.

[@jaybrooks1098]

We got a computer contract with the podiatrist in town and he uses the micro cassettes to transcribe for medical records later

[@AmoralTom]

I want to listen to the entire tape

[@CB3ROB-CyberBunker]

never realized there actually were 2 different formats in that size.

[@kattanism]

This stuff looks so much better and stronger built than a lot of the similar tech now.

[@paistefever]

This device looks pretty cool. I do IT support for various companies, and we have plenty of law offices that use regular cassette voice recorders for their paralegals and secretaries. PS I was about to type about 12:20 that you forgot about the selector, but then watched the whole video to the end and saw that you remembered about that switch underneath the door, haha :)

[@Charlesb88]

I was wondering why you couldn't figure out the headphone jack issue since you had previously shown us the 🔊/🎧/🎤 switch under the lid. I suspect they did it that way to make playing out loud dictation to a boss by a secretary easier if she was using the 🎧 and he/she came wanting to hear the 📼, rather then having to unplug the headphones then replug them back in later. Why they hid it under the lid is likely they didn't expect people to need to switch audio output modes that often as most would pick 🔊 or 🎧 and stuck with that most of the time.

[@lifeisgood12341]

Reasonable

[@volvo480]

Philips used the mini-cassette also in their P2000 range of 8-bit computers back in 1981. The tape could contain up to 42k of data, the tape drive was completely controlled by the computer and acted almost like a disk drive.

[@Boemel]

our EMCO cnc lathe at school used minicassettes.

[@2kBofFun]

I put 60min ones in mine, and the computer gets confused of those, you get end-of-tape errors all the time. I need to get my Basic ROM hacked to allow 60 min tapes. You fancy Volvo 480's?

[@FG-gu9rn]

Phillips had also some weird things back in the day, one of those was a portable radio with a built-in alarm clock, there are plenty models of it, but the common one was the model that had 2 alarm clocks, one for each time zone (i.e. on the first clock display - the U.S. time, on the second - Asian time). My mom had one of those when she was a teenager and use it mainly on the beach to listen to some tunes, but the second clock on her model never worked properly (I don't know, because I was born in 1998, which was after her radio broke up). It had the similar design as this transcriber, but it was colored black and blue.

[@timf-tinkering]

Minicassettes did originally come with 'ordinary' clamshell cases. Those clip things came in later. I had storage racks specifically designed for Minicassettes, and those later tapes with those clip storage things were annoying because they didn't fit the storage racks. Maybe surprising, but manufacturers other than Philips did manufacture Minicassette equipment - I had a handheld Minicassette recorder made by Sanyo, and my Dad had one made by Decimo.

[@Hugmir]

Well this was quite fascinating. The quality of the recording surpassed my expectations greatly.

[@patrickcardon1643]

Reminds me of the proprietary stenorette from Gründig that went to a whole lot of iterations and is still available (at inflated prices compared to micro-cassette). Got a machine that I need to get going

[@mjouwbuis]

The Philips taperecorder business unit in Vienna was spun off and is still in business with digital solid state dictation recorders as their main product, I think.

[@vanhetgoor]

This is not that strange, Sony kept their Betamax videorecorder for many years in stock for professional users. Only recently they have stopped selling it, brick-a-brack shops stopped taking it in long before the manufacturer ended sales.

[@markallen1782]

If you can find one of the hand held dictation recorders, be careful trying to change the drive belt. There is a "finger" that holds the drive wheel for the tape drive, which has a white plastic bearing that falls out when you lift the finger to pull the belt out. Before you do anything, put a drop of glue onto the top side of that white bearing, and it's twin on the other end of the drive wheel axle. If you don't, when you lift the finger to change the belt, the bearing falls out, and it's very hard to re insert it, and then align the drive pulley axle into that bearing, as the whole plastic assembly is clipped together. If it does fall out, you are looking for a white piece of plastic, barely 2mm in diameter, and length... The belt needed for those dictation recorders is 33 mm in diameter, (or 103mm in length) ,and 0.8mm square, .

[@TheOriginalCollectorA1303]

That’s a pretty cool machine, and for only $1000 that’s a steal!

[@mjouwbuis]

They changed the serial number format from what it was when they were still part of Philips, but I'm pretty sure the "317" part of the serial number would mean it was made in week 17 of 2003 (or possibly 1993 or 2013). The power supply, though, was made in week 34 of 1998. So it either isn't original or they had a large stock that lasted at least until 2003.

[@TechBaffle]

They really haven't changed the design! The serif font on the buttons dates it a bit - even the logo is the older version (unlike the Mini Cassettes) 😀 I don't have one, but the Philips LFH388 is still sold in the UK. Again, doesn't look like the design's been changed recently!

[@chrisa2735-h3z]

In my opinion it’s a good thing that design has not been changed it will probably look like a transformer if they do that🤣

[@joeblow8593]

That legal stuff on the tape sounds interesting, maybe you can do another video with the tape contents... of course redacting the names and personal info

[@chrisa2735-h3z]

Damn It’s so cool. the things we find out Are still sold For businesses many years after they stopped being sold On the Consumer market are so mind-boggling! Especially in 2021!

[@ACBMemphis]

I wonder if there was any advantage to rim drive over capstan for quick rewinding or reliability? Coincidentally, just last week I picked up a different obscure dictation tape format that also originated in Austria and was rim drive (the Ind-X-Matic). It actually did not sound too bad for voice... These days, that old Star Trek episode with the cat and the voice activated typewriter has actually come true, you can just talk and the computer-based dictation is very good...

[@2kBofFun]

I use the tapes in the old 1983 Philips P2000T home computer. Thanks to this video I found out that the tapes are still sold new as well. They are friggin expensive, over 10€/tape.

[@dennisp.2147]

That machine has seen a fairly good amount of use, based on the smooth spots worn on the buttons.

[@saspurillie]

these are also used in law firms for case notes and things.

[@br9809]

I particularly liked this video comma very interesting device exclamation mark

[@nellayema2455]

The company that I work for also has a couple of law offices and they use the Olympus dictation/transcription machines. The older ones use micro-cassette. The new ones are digital.

[@bubba99009]

Amazing they never gave in and adopted the much more popular (and superior) micro cassette format. I'm sure more than one person has tried to put microcassettes in one of these machines.

[@beardymcbeardface69]

Law firms around the World are keeping this product alive.

[@charbokh]

Interesting format. I've found some portable mini cassette recorders in thrift stores in the past that I didn't bought because I knew little or none about this format but it's surprising that these machines are still being sold by Philips today. Thousand bucks is still too much though, I could probably buy compact cassette recorders instead or a bunch of cellphones to use exclusively for recording voice. Now, if I ever come across one mini cassette recorder again I will buy it.

[@orange_light_pictures]

What i find strange, and this might be due to the design that philips have stuck with but; for a mini cassette, the player is huge. It seems to be the same size if not bigger than traditional normal sized cassette players/recorders of the past. Even if you took the fact that's a 90s design and not changed since it's inception. Surely the advantage of size, would have made a product like this, in the 90s much smaller.

[@datom844]

Philips closed the plant in Austria (Vienna) years ago. It seems that the newer ones come from Hungary. The dictation department is now its own company.-> Speech Processing Solutions Gmbh Vienna

[@parpar3]

The plant in Vienna still exists and the mini cassettes are still manufactured there.

[@frankowalker4662]

No modern office should be without a dictation machine.

[@jdebultra]

Well thought out design. Interesting

[@Skawo]

Pocket memo, as opposed to all those memos which require a forklift to move around.

[@Oliver-l1c]

I used to work somewhere the secretaries still used these. I had no idea they cost so much.

[@albear972]

Hooooooly crap! That's insane, that that ancient tech is still being sold. And I gasped when I checked the price of those blank cassette tapes on Amazon. A10pk of 30 minute goes for $150.00 and a 10 pk of 60 minute tapes goes for $ 230.00! 😮

[@RetroTechChris]

Good stuff, Kevin. I always learn something from your vids, never knew this existed. Thanks for covering it!

[@Faddijav]

I think she’s talking about Reco Real Estate Council of Ontario For Canada Someone was giving out fake mortgages. That maybe proof of how Toronto Real estate bubble started. Lol

[@theoloutlaw]

Awwww, I was hoping we would see the guts of the unit too :)

[@bluetech7753]

It would be neat if you could find a recorder and demonstrate the recording of these mini cassettes. I wonder if they sell recording units today. I would assume that if they still sell this one they would have to sell a recorder also.

[@jamannetje]

The AC-Adapter too looks like the one delivered with DCC170.

[@kaczan3]

Wasn't 2021 like 10 years ago?

[@dashcamandy2242]

12:17 - My brain: "Oh my! He didn't do what I think he did, did he?" 13:58 - Well, I certainly give you respect for owning up to it. I don't think many would have even noticed without your "subtle" foreshadowing.

[@GrumpyIan]

My guess they still sell it for police stations or court houses to use as backups for interrogations and court cases.

[@beerrox711]

Would explain the price… only governments would see that price and consider it a bargain!

[@uxwbill]

Were it not for the 2021 copyright on the documentation, I'd have wondered if the prices were set to something ridiculous to discourage purchases rather than marking the item out of stock. I'm curious as to how many they actually sell...

[@kelvinnkat]

The sound recording could use a bit of work; there was some sort of repetitive scrubbing-like sound as well as left-right sound balance switches, but otherwise, great work! I hope to see more great content from you soon!

[@Ra-Hul-K]

I'm a modern-age transcriber & I've only heard about these ancient machines from my elders..

[@warphammer]

The box of paper clips. :D

[@user_romanport]

Really interesting stuff. I didn't even know there was a difference between mini and micro cassette. Out of curiosity, what did the erased tape sound like? The name "quick erase" to me implies that it won't fully scrub what's there.

[@vwestlife]

You get a whooshing noise on tapes that have been quick erased, louder than the standard tape hiss.

[@beerrox711]

@@vwestlife like 8 track fast forward?

[@TechGorilla1987]

@5:34 - Do I detect the sound of a neighbor launching some type of aerial firework? It was sound stage left rear.

[@TheCRTProductions]

uhh.. i think those were just crickets

[@sharkprisoner1909]

I had never seen a rim drive system before, interesting to hear about. You mentioned the speed fluctuation is too great to use for music but do you know if it was ever used on standard cassettes anyway? It’d likely sound terrible but I’d like to look in to if anyone ever produced a machine without a capstan and spin roller for standard cassettes anyway. Great video as always, thanks

[@endingman]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/n6qsZWBppKyjoKM You're welcome.

[@FranklyPeetoons]

Its current price is a mystery worth exploring. Why so high?

[@lazycrypt6893]

I imagine since the clientele is mostly governments and other enterprise types they can charge whatever since organizations that want them have the money to spend.

[@mothmansmemeticwarehouse6478]

Watching this in North Jersey, can hear those exact same cricket noises in my yard :)

[@the_rubbish_bin]

Mini vs Micro Cassette, today I learned there is a difference.

[@ChaunceyGardener]

It's just like Mini and Micro USB.

[@I967]

I occasionally come across a recorder or transcriber using this format, but I have always avoided it due to being rim-drive. Microcassette is superior to this.

[@le9038]

I can't believe that philips is still selling that product! And 1,000$??? This things gotta be made out of gold!

[@Fuzy2K]

11:44 -- I remember that! That was from BBISHOPPCM's channel 😆

[@douglasallen9428]

11:52 nearly made me crap my pants!!!

[@Dan-TechAndMusic]

@@mikedw6748 That's BBISHOPPCM, not UXWBill.

[@1walkgirl]

Have both formats!, the philips I have a black with red on with a weirde angle in it, now you only have to get a grundig stenorette and you have the 3 formats :-)

[@NanoBurger]

That was an interesting comma informative comma and insightful video period

[@richardlindquistjr]

Amazing tech

[@freddyburger5574]

I have at least a dozen microcassette recorders, but only one Philips minicassette recorder.. and it's a Pierre Cardin model ;)

[@Neslakim]

Haha so fun! I used to repair these as a part of my apprenticeship back in 2004. The portable and stationary ones with foot pedal and everything. Fun to remember, not fun to work with do. Today everything is recorded and stored digital and thank good for that (!). Thanks for sharing.

[@papadop]

So because the tape movement relies on the hubs, and not on a capstan and roller, the speed of the tape is constantly increasing as the “take up” reel accumulates more tape?

[@vwestlife]

Yes.

[@Shnowz]

looking to pick up the 725 specifically for the poor recording quality. might make for an interesting effect, i know microcassettes have a nice nostalgic sound to them but i was surprised to hear there was a difference. ill have to track down some minis now.

[@Anamnesia]

Secretary: Can I use your Dictaphone? Boss: No, use a pencil like everyone else!

[@flashthompson1085]

Oh my damn. I have one of these from my previous commnds. It was given to me. I wonder what the trad in value would be?

[@Gunbudder]

the only people i know of that actively use transcription cassettes today are doctors and lawyers. i think more doctors are moving to digital transcription though because there are so many indian transcription services that have overnight turnaround

[@segagenesis1989]

Gotta love those "rock bottom prices"! *Sold!* ... NOT!

[@robertsteel3563]

If people were still using the "PocketMemo" to this day, Philips should've put like an override switch for the headphone jack on the back or like move the main headphone switch to somewhere else on the machine!

[@Thrakus]

wow 1000$ , Something like this did peak in the 80`s 90`s so better a used one.

[@SeaJay_Oceans]

The mini cassettes are so cute ! :-)

[@goodsocksproductions9397]

That explosion was CRAZY!

[@Jako1987]

I resently have thought that all casettes run on rim drive. So I allow your mistake 😀

[@JessicaFEREM]

I think the footswitch is working as intended, if you have a pair of headphones on the other end of that wire, remember that headphones are a coil of wire, the connection from the coil could be enough to trigger the footswitch, I think there's a standard for footswitches like that, I think they're using a standard audio jack and just not using one of the conductors. please correct me if I'm wrong.

[@GP1138]

11:40 -- shots fired. I cackled.

[@pmonk1487]

So, you can buy a dedicated mini cassette player for $1000 or an older iPhone/Android for $150.