Creative Labs Vado HD 720p Pocket Video Camcorder with 8 GB Video Storage and 2x Digital Zoom (Black) Buy Now

I ordered my Vado HD last week. Originally I was going to purchase the Flip Mino HD, but then decided to go with the VADO since I liked the 8 GB memory (twice that of the FLIP) and I researched a number of reviews on sites all over the Internet that said that while the picture was not as good as the MINO, it was close and meanwhile a number of features (like the ability to change resolution to get up to 8 hours, use of swappable rechargable battery, etc.) were better on the VADO.

Well I got my unit on Monday (about 5 days ago). It was very timely, because the next day I was attending my small children's holiday concert at their pre-school and this gave me a perfect chance to try out the device.

On the plus side, the packaging was decent, the product came with a nice plastic protective cover and the form factor and functionality were intuitive and easy to use.

The immediate cons were that the instructions (if you can call them that) included in the box are laughably basic. It's literally a hard to read (tiny letters) pamphlet, and basically not very helpful. However, it was enough to figure out how to use the device.

While the device is sturdy enough, I did not care for the design of the "flip out" USB connector, it felt a bit flimsy. Unfortunately, this connector seems designed to use more so with a Laptop than a desktop in terms of the configuration of the USB connector since the device hangs off of it. Fortunately, there was an extender cable in the box (a plus), however, the device seems not to be able to charge through the extender cord (at least it did not for me).

The Video quality is decent (in the HD+ mode). However, the biggest issue I experienced right away was that the AUDIO and VIDEO were out of sync when I transferred any of the recorded Video files to my computer. It played properly on the device, but when I transferred the AVI video files from the VADO to my PC or laptop (I tried on two different computers to make sure it was not just my machine at fault), the sound played correctly, but the VIDEO went too slow: i.e., the sound and the video did not match up.

I tried a variety of things including looking up the product on the CREATIVE website for this product. Unfortunately, this section of their site is poor from both a quality and quantity of helpful content perspective. There was very little there and really no way to even look up a phone number to call.

Fortunately, through Google I found their customer service phone number listed by someone else (Why not make it accessible from their own website?). I called the number and it was quick in terms of being able to get to a human being (sounded offshore). The person had a good demeanor and tried to be helpful. She walked me through a couple of possible things to try in order to fix the issue. Unfortunately, none of them worked and apparently my device (which was just released) already had the latest software.

I was on the phone for about 45 minutes. Since nothing worked, they actually suggested that I return the product to Amazon.com as the only solution! This is in fact what I ended up doing about 3 days after I received my Vado HD. I am disappointed that it did not work out and I definitely don't have any use for a video recorder where the sound and video don't sync up. Good riddance! Not having tried any of the other competing devices like the Flip Mino HD, I can't make a comparison, but as for the Vado - ultimately - it was a disappointment. I will think twice about purchasing a creative product again (at least in the video category) after this C+ experience with the Vado HD.

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Post script: I was a bit annoyed that the videos I shot during my trial period were out of sync - SO I tried to figure out how to fix the issue with the videos of my children. I did figure out a solution using a free software package.

I ended up using a free program called AVI-MUX (google it if you have the same issue I did). What I did was I loaded each avi clip into AVI MUX and then I converted them into a MKV (Matroska Video File) using the AVI-MUX program. Once I had the MKV file, I was able to play it in VLC media player and the audio and video are now in Sync. However, there is no way that I would go through such a complicated process each time so I am glad I gave the product back as mentioned above. However, I am happy to have found a way to salvage the few valuable videos that I did shoot during the trial period so that they now work correctly. There are probably better ways to do it, but the above worked for me so I include the description above in case others experience this problem too.Get more detail about Creative Labs Vado HD 720p Pocket Video Camcorder with 8 GB Video Storage and 2x Digital Zoom (Black).