Disclosure: I received this product for the purpose of a review. All opinions are 100%my own. I was not compensated for this review. Your opinion may vary from mine.Consumer electronics seem to be getting smaller while providing more power and better quality results. The XVN-1 Digital Video Recorder by Vivitar is no exception to this rule. In this extremely compact design, advanced camera technology has been implemented that can produce 1080p high definition video, or still pictures rated at 16.1 Megapixels. For a device that is smaller than the average cellular phone, this is quite impressive.
Technical Specifications:
| Megapixels | 16.1 (4608x3456 4:3) |
| Video Recording | 1080p (1920x1080x30 fps) |
| Aspect Ratio | 16:9 |
| Aperture | F/2.8;f=4.27mm |
| Digital Zoom | 4x |
| Compatible Memory | SD/SDHC |
| LCD | 3” Touch Screen |
| Battery | Lithium Ion |
| Charging Methods | USB or Standard Outlet |
| Video Output to TV: | HDMI (Type D) and Composite |
| Included Cables: | HDMI Type D to A Composite Cable USB Cable Wall Charger |
| Included Accessories: | Drivers (DVD) Wrist Strap Soft Carrying Case (Belt Loop Style) Quick Start Guide |
Coming out of the box, the first thing I noticed was how incredibly light this unit is. With the battery, this unit feels like it weighs under a pound, which can help for long recording sessions. After looking at the device, and inserting the battery it requires a four hour charge prior to use. Since the battery is Lithium Ion, it has no charging memory, holds a charge, and last much longer than standard batteries. The charger initially comes in two pieces which are assembled by simply pressing them together. It appears as if they had created it this way so you can purchase adapters for other countries if you travel abroad.
Once the unit had been fully charged, I started it up for my test run. I have to say it is quite responsive and boots extremely quick (under a second). My next task was to navigate through the short startup questions. During this process I noticed that the screen was easy to manipulate, which is rare for me since I have tree trunks for fingers. The menu on the camera is pretty intuitive, which is fortunate because the startup guide is very minimal. It took me several minutes to determine how to switch from video mode to still picture mode, which in hindsight seems silly it took me that long. In the upper right hand corner is a graphic of a video camera, tap that and it changes to a camera. Tap it again and you are now in sound record mode. One last time and you cycle back into video mode.
Now I am ready to take some pictures! The internal memory does not hold much, but that is to be expected in today’s market. (Approximately 1 minute of video or 15 pictures at 16.1 MP). While it states on the box that the digital zoom is 4.0 times, I noticed that in still mode I could go as much as 10 times. Granted, with any digital zoom this will be enhanced by the internal software and some detail can expected to be lost from any device with this feature. Vivitar placed two buttons for start recording and/or take picture on the camera. One is on the top, and the second on the rear of the unit. This is nice because no matter how you hold the digital video recorder, you can capture the scene easily.
Once I was done with the pictures, I took out the USB cable and attached it to the rear of the device and into my Windows 8 computer. Without even requiring drivers, my laptop recognized it and transferred the pictures extremely quickly. (About 8 Mbps, or 2 pictures a second). This device is also compatible with Windows XP SP3, Vista, Windows 7, or an Intel based Mac with OS X 10.5.x or higher. The native file format for pictures is in JPG and while these are typically compressed files, it does not look as if it lose much with an average file size of 4.5 megabytes. In addition, the videos capture in a pure .MOV format providing the quality for 1080p recording.
The following two photos displayed were taken with the XVN-1 Digital Video Recorder.
Overall, I felt this is a great digital video recorder for standard occasions. It is light, extremely portable and puts out an overall decent video. If I was going out for a day with the kids, this most likely would be the camera I would bring as it is extremely light, portable and has a great battery. You can find more information on this particular unit or their other products at Vivitar
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