Creative Vado HD Pocket Video Camcorder - 73VF058000000 - Capture life in HD

I use the product for recording memories of my family on a weekly/daily basis. It's great for quickly and easily capturing those moments when they happen and in HD. I find the audio quality poor. My previous "video cam" was a 5 year old Sony Cybershot 4MP camera with video features. The audio quality by comparison is much louder and clearer than my VADO HD. Eight Gigs of built in memory gives you up to 2 hours of FULL 720p HD video, more than enough for me. The VADO HD movies are recorded in .AVI. I have had the Vado HD for about 2 months and I still have major issues with the codec and video playback on Windows Media Player. The videos do not work with my Video Editing Software, Sony Vegas 9.0. During playback on most video players, the video runs at about half speed while the audio plays at normal speed out of sync. Some players, the picture does not show at all. And this is after I installed the codec from the camera, using windows XP. The only way I can watch the videos with normal playback is through our television via the included HDMI cable to the VADO, through USB connection to a PC with the VADO Player Software, through YouTube or by playback on the camera itself. I have had little success enjoying the videos after saving them on my hard drive. There is no picture mode. So still photographs are not possible with the camera in your hand. The built in player software (accessible through a PC when hooked up via USB) allows you to snap stills from a video and save them as JPG, but 720 x 1080 resolution photos are not good for prints. The built in video "editing" software does have some very cool features. A lite version of the software is accessible with unlimited use, but you have to pay to upgrade to the full version with all the bells and whistles. Basically the software has no editing controls that you might expect, rather it just takes the videos, photos and music you select and randomly creates a super mega video college. You just set the time limit, optional opening and closing credits, and pick a themed style effect and you're done. I find it very cool and I'm interested in purchasing the full version. It has crashed on me more than once, so I'm hesitant to make that purchase. I wonder if I need new hardware. Overall it's a cool camera, small, quick and easy to use with fantastic picture quality . But the poor audio quality and Windows XP compatibly issues has me looking for a new pocket video camera at this point. I would have given it 2 stars, but the video editing sofware does have me a bit excited.
 
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Electronics > Camcorders > High Definition