David Fay appreciates my hardware recommendations:

Thanks a lot for all your vids posted on YouTube. It was very helpful in my decision to buy the Vado HD. I had originally purchased the Kodak zi6, but thought it was a bit bigger than I wanted to carry in my pocket every day. So, I got the vado HD and LOVED it.

The AVI format does not work in iMovie ’09. I read a bunch of blog entries with this issue, and downloaded “ffmpegx” which seems to take a while, be a huge extra step, and I do not know if it is possible to batch process. I have a MacBook Pro, and love the ease of dumping vids in iPhoto, then making movies in iMovie ’09.

Is there an easier workflow to convert files into a better format?

Yeah, Creative screwed the pooch on Mac support – but there’s a perfect way to fix their shortcomings (until they wake up and realize that not everybody in the world uses, or WANTS to use, Windows).

My suggestion for both Windows and Mac OS X users is to download MPEG Streamclip (freeware). It’s got a batch processing feature for you. Simply adjust your output accordingly (I’d recommend experimenting and finding your own favorite MP4 setting). I believe the Windows version is on par with the OS X version, so you should be good in that respect. I also use this utility to watermark URLs in the lower right-corner of videos that weren’t produced live.