When I was originally looking for a video diary, the reason I wanted video was that I was looking for a way to have a diary where I could use a language for which a written form does not really exist, American Sign Language. This program was the first time I've ever bought a video diary app.
But I've found there are some major problems with this software program that's left me feeling frustrated.
First problem: When I create a video, I can see in the background the diary locking itself while the screen for the video is open. So when I'm done with the video, I'm forced to re-enter the password again to re-open the diary. This happened virtually every single time that I was making a video. Why is this the apparent default setting, for the rest of the diary to close down when a video is being made? I would like to have the option of setting the diary to stay open while I'm making an entry by video.
Second problem: When I save a diary, I must name the video. Yet when I am ready to look at the video attachment, there is no name appearing under any attachment, which is a problem if I've created more than one video attachment for the same entry in the diary. Only if I open the video briefly by space bar can I see the title I gave the video. I can hit the space bar to quickly see what's in each video, but I should be able to look at the title of each video file without going through that space-bar step if I wish, it would be so much faster to do so. Ironically, hitting the space bar is billed as a time saving way of seeing the content of each video quickly, but having the name of the video in English underneath each video file would be even quicker.
Third problem: The videos I am saving are not reliably appearing in the entry for the day I make them. Several times I have created a video and then thought I saved it. But when I test it, the video I just made isn't there, it's gone. The video files I see aren't visibly labelled, so I'm forced to check them manually again by hitting the space bar again with each video file to see if the video I just made is there or not, but it turns out that they are the earlier videos I made that I created for testing purposes before I made the actual video I really want. The video I made is once again just gone, without a trace. I just went through this three times today. I am tired of repeating myself on video a fourth time, so I am not going to bother. There has to be a better way to really make sure the video is in fact being made and then later in fact being saved than currently exists in this app.
Fourth problem: When more than one video is made for the same day in the diary, the videos are not saved in a clear order. You can't tell by looking at the screen which video was done first, second or third. There is no option of having a visible timestamp or in some other way having the video files numbered to be able to separate them from each other (unless, of course, you go through the time consuming act of hitting the space bar and then viewing each video file in order to determine the content of each video file).
It appears the videos are stored in reverse chronological order, with each additional video inserted in the sequence at the far left and pushing the previous videos (if any) for that day in the diary to the right. I would like to have the option of reversing this order so that the video files can go from left to right with the first file at far left being the first video that was made for that day's entry in the diary.
The one positive thing I can say about this app is that it never crashes or freezes. So, I will give it five stars for stability.
But in the other respects (features, ease of use, value, overall rating), for at least this version of this app, I am giving it a 1/2 star.