I bought my new machine, a Compaq Presario at Best Buy specifically because I wanted to use Dragon NaturallySpeaking version 10. My old computer just had too old of processor. I’d bought Dragon NaturallySpeaking Preferred edition specifically because I wanted to be able to use my digital voice recorder. I wanted to be able to record blog posts while driving to and from work. Or any other times when I have spare time. I was able to hook up my USB microphone to the machine and record using NaturallySpeaking. But I had also recorded some blog posts on my digital voice recorder which is a Panasonic RR-US 360 digital voice recorder which I’ve had for years. I bought it because I can download recordings into my machine via a USB port. I download the recordings onto my machine at work, and transferred them to a USB drive. I was able to copy those to my new machine. And after training the NaturallySpeaking software, I was able to transcribe some of those posts from a digital voice recorder. But when I went to set up my USB Panasonic RR-US360 digital voice recorder on my new machine I got an error saying that the driver was not installed. I had installed the Voice Studio software that came with the digital voice recorder. Apparently it didn’t install the driver or the driver was not compatible with Windows 7. Searching around on the Internet, I found many sites mentioning a Windows 7 driver for the Panasonic RR-US360 digital voice recorder. But many of these seem to be spam sites with little or no content. The page title would mention Panasonic RR-US360 digital voice recorder and Windows 7 driver, but when you went there the pages were full of ads or if you followed through the links they would ask you to click on advertiser links to be able to download the driver. I went to Panasonic’s website to search for new drivers but there were no download sections there, not even for the older drivers or software. I submitted a tech support request asking about Windows 7 drivers for the Panasonic RR-US360 digital voice recorder and got a prompt reply back from Panasonic.
“We regret to inform you but your RR-US360 is not compatible with Windows 7. It can only be compatible with Windows 98, 2000, millenium ed. and XP. We apologize for any inconvenience.”
I e-mailed backasking clarifying that they would not be releasing Windows 7 drivers for the Panasonic RR-US360 digital voice recorder “So you are telling me, you are not coming out with new drivers for Windows 7? And so I have an expensive paperweight?”
They responded back thanking me for my patronage of Panasonic. “Your patronage as a Panasonic customer is truly valued. Therefore, we appreciate this information regarding your experience with our product. We do regret to hear of your dissatisfaction. Be assured all consumer comments, whether favorable or not, are appreciated. All comments are investigated and given careful consideration in our continuing effort to produce high quality products, and customer service that consumers expect from our label.”
One of the reasons I bought this digital voice recorder was because it was USB and figured that being a plug-in to a machine would be fairly standard. But apparently my digital voice recorder will not work with Windows 7 ever. Because they will not be releasing new drivers for Windows 7. And mine is just one of a bunch of Panasonic digital voice recorders that came out about that time. So they are basically abandoning all of those older digital voice recorders, leaving all of the users in the lurch with useless pieces of hardware. I e-mailed back to Panasonic tech-support saying that I will no longer be buying any Panasonic products. If this is the way they support their products, I have no interest in buying any more. Why would I buy a new Panasonic digital voice recorder if when Windows 8 or Windows 9 or whatever comes out, I will longer be able to use it. It’s not like it’s some sort of specialized piece of hardware that should be limited to by the operating system. I can still plug in my digital camera, and printer and scanner, and they work fine. Though for my scanner I did have to download a new driver. Plustek, the company that made my scanner is much smaller than great big Panasonic. But they managed to come out with a new Windows 7 driver. So Panasonic sucks, and I will no longer buy any Panasonic products. I’m currently looking at a new digital voice recorder made by Olympus.
Same situation here with me. Have you found a way to use the recorder with Windows 7? Oh, how I need a driver to download all of my records.
Comment by same_boat — June 7, 2010 @ 7:07 am
Hi there
I have essentially an even more aof a dramatic problem with panasonic. I have XP but cannot extract because I dont have the original Voice editing software. i have the rr-us450 that originally came with a voice editing premium 2.0 but is now useless even in xp… I went to future shop to get a disc from there- i.e. buy a new recorder use the disc, return the recorder, but their new recorders dont come with cds anymore… softwre is preloaded onto the recorder from now on. so i am looking to download the driver because the recorder is full. for some additional reason i cannot download torrents… rapidshare is fine- i have microsoft office 2011 activated, but i cant find this voicce editing from panasonic. i called panasonic, got the same as above… they said i can buy the discs… but from an unrelated company in mississauga. there they said it would be $10.00 per disc- 2 discs in canada, voice editing and the drivers??? they said its going to take 2-3 weeks since they have to order the disc from Japan. tell me if this is normal, i have to wait 2-3 weeks to pay 20$ so i can use the voice recorder that I HAVE… if it were possible, i am inquiring with the people i know if they have a panasonic recorder, if there is a way i can get the executable file for installing the digital recorder, feel free to assist me. My email is: 77077@live.co.uk i thank you in advance for your assistance
Comment by ernest — June 18, 2010 @ 1:44 pm
I finally eliminated the last of the XP machines in our household, only to discover that my RR-US360 is now a brick…arrrggghh. Guess I’ll have to find someone with an old XP machine to extract my recent recordings.
My unit is only about 4 years old and shouldn’t be obsolete just yet, but it is. Anyone know the address for Panasonic’s US President of Consumer Electronics? I’d like to send him my digital recorder and tell him to keep it. I’ll think twice before buying Panasonic products again.
Comment by Ken — July 15, 2010 @ 1:15 pm
That is exactly my issue! I bought a RR-US450 and now with my new laptop with Windows7, this voice recorder needs to be considered garbage ! Last time I buy Panasonic!
Comment by Paulo Uchoa — July 25, 2010 @ 5:33 am
Tive o mesmo problema! Me sinto enganado, SERIO! Vc compra um gravador que não é barato e eles te deixam sem driver..! Obvio que não compro mais panasonic…!! Tenho tb um gravador da Sony que é mais barato e me deixa muito mais feliz!!
Comment by Rodrigo Guardia — August 6, 2010 @ 2:17 pm
I hear you! I so have the same problem.
What is drivig me crayz is that you can download an update from panasonic global site. YOu have to type the serial no to be able to do it . But when I type it it does not recognize as a valis serial no – what a load of rubbish!!!
We need to tweet about blog about make a lot of noise
Comment by Patricia — September 3, 2010 @ 4:44 pm