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

If you want to shoot video, perform no editing, and just upload clips to Internet, then you'll be happy with the Vado HD. The lens is wide, and video is crisp for a pocket camera.

If you want to do even the slightest bit of editing, which the majority of us do, then get ready to be frustrated as you pour over message board treads trying to get the clips to import into anything except the terrible Vado Central s/w.

Let me comment on editing for both platforms (Mac and PC)...

MAC first...
Perian and QT pro let you VIEW the "avi h.264 encoded" clips. You can not import the clips to iMovie. For that you need some type of a converter. At this point, even with a converter, you begin to delve into techno-speak and codec babble etc... which even if you do convert the files to a iMovie readable format, you are left wondering if you are even close to the resolution that you'd hope for when buying a 720p camera.

Since it was well documented that Mac's had problems with the Vado HD, but I bought it anyway - I got out my Windows PC in hopes of having better luck. Here is where I was surprised at the similar results and frustrations.

First the s/w that comes with Vado...

Vado Central - Did some college kid on internship develop this for Creative? After "install" Creative got me for about $18 more because the lite version only allows you to edit 3 clips at a time. They tout the 8 gig capacity, but only allow you to edit 3 clips at a time unless you upgrade. I figured for $18, I'd get the s/w that was suppose to go with the camera. Well, editing is extremely limited. Adding music is an all-or-nothing deal. There is no way to clip out music to allow for the voice track. You also cannot clip out sections from clips that you don't want to use. Now... I'm not trying to edit like a movie director, just add music for the first 45 seconds and then drop it out for the voice track; and cut out sections where I shake the camera etc...

Next up, saving the movie... "Preview" shows you more of a slide show and is very choppy. Saving a movie is quite slow. Borderline unacceptable, given the specs on my machine.

I have Sony Vegas on my PC so I tried to import the clips into there to gain the extra editing capability. NO LUCK, Vegas doesn't recognize the avi h.264 format either - you'll only be able to import the soundtrack. Like most, I went off to the Internet to research workarounds. Everyone has the same problems, but most Mac users figure life is better for the Vado on a PC - well it isn't and I'm out the extra $18.00 for the s/w upgrade - adding insult to injury. You'll spend have your time researching how to import the clips to perform basic editing, instead of being outside using it for video.

Bottom line is I wanted a cheap/small camera with basic editing and I got a camera with basic UPLOADING capability. Vado Central is a joke - it almost seems like Creative used it to test downloading capability from the camera and then decided to just ship it with the product and call it an editor.Get more detail about Creative Labs Vado HD 720p Pocket Video Camcorder with 8 GB Video Storage and 2x Digital Zoom (Black).