Accessing RCA RP5022 Voice Recorder Files on a Macintosh

I have a Mac, running OSX 10.6.8, where I use VMware Fusion 4.1.1 to run a virtual Windows XP machine. When I plug the RCA RP5022 Digital Voice Recorder into the USB port on the Mac: the Mac doesn't mount it as a disk drive, and (b) Windows XP doesn't mount it (it starts to, but seems to fail).

I contaced RCA and asked about a driver for the Mac, or a version of DVM ("Digital Voice Manager") for the Mac. They told me there is none.

Here's how I got the files off the recorder and turned into something useful, using the Mac.

• stop VMware Fusion (terminate the app completely)
• plug the RP5022 into the Mac USB port
• OSX mounts the recorder as a disk drive called, IIRC, "THOMSON DVR".
• Open the drive, find your files (usually under the directory A, B, C, and/or D, and as A######.VOC), and drag them to a folder on you Mac (you can save time by dragging them to a folder that's shared with VMware Fusion)
• Start VMware Fusion, resume the Windows vm
• If needed, drag the .VOC files to a folder on the virtual Windows machine
• Run the DVM software on Windows
• Navigate (in DVM) to the folder with the .VOC files.
• For each .VOC file, right click and select "convert to WAV", and store the WAV files where you want them.
• (later) drag the .WAV files to a Mac OSX accessible folder. iTunes, QuickTime, and many other programs can play them.
• Consider deleting the files from the RP5022
• Eject the drive (THOMSON DVR)

Have fun!

Stan

2012-03-26