Exhale: Core Fusion Lean & Toned DVD and Amazon VOD

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

I borrowed the Exhale: Core Fusion Lean & Toned DVD from the library because i have been curious about this workout series. The library is always a good place to borrow videos and materials! My beautiful tax dollars hard at work! Always a great thing.

The series is supposed to be yoga, pilates, barre work and other ballet inspired toning workouts. The reviews on Collagevideo and Amazon were all very good. Not really having to use weights or a pro ballet barre was another perk to this series. I had a mat, lite hand weights and chair so i was good to go.

The video is 55 minutes long including the intro. You can further break it up to 5, 10 minute workout sections which are great for this prego woman who can only do at most on a really really good day 20 minutes of working out (with a break in between to hydrate). This video is great. the thighs and butt portion really work the lower body intensely. I also find my core working and that is good so i can have some more strength for delivery. My legs were sore the next day, but it felt great. In between sets there is stretching and i find that really helps to calm and center before getting into another couple of intense movements.

So having previewwed the DVD thanks to my Public Library, i wanted to add it to my exercise collection for my postpartum getting my body back plan. To Amazon i went. Looking at the used versions of the video i came across the Amazon Video on Demand downloadable video. At $9.99 is looks like a good deal. It would DL straight to my computer and i can even transfer it to my Sansa or portable device to play anywhere. Also as long as i can access amazon.com I could also access the video via their Amazon player. This sounds really good.

At first glance this was great. Then after purchasing i realized it would only play on the Amazon Player so then i had to DL the Amazon Unbox which would allow it to DL to my computer and allow me to access it via Windows media player and other players i have on my computer. The down load took and hour...it reminded me of AOL in the 1990's when downloads took forever. You could walk away, have dinner, take a bath and then check on the download and it would still remain in the act of downloading ever so slowly. Finally after the long DL, i could open it in windows Media player, however much to my dismay, the chapter selections were not aviabale as they were on DVD. This is not to my liking because I only wanted two workouts, Thighs and Buns. I had to scroll through and look for the workout by sight. Very annoying. Went back to Amazon VOD FAQ and it did say that chapter selections were not avaiable on all videos. Which really bites because if in the main menu of the original DVD it's there it should transfer over to the VOD. My next thought was can i return the item and get a refund to purchase the DVD? Also in the FAQ the answer was no. Frustrating.


I am keeping in mind that Amazon VOD is a new concept for the site and they are still working out the kinks. However, i still feel disappointed with the lack of chapters and the fact that one cannot simply play a video on the default player installed on a computer and the Amazon brand of players and stuff has to be downloaded. It's like the kindle, where you are locked to amazon purchases and can't even borrow electronic items from the library. Very upsetting. I can't tell you how many kindle owners are upset when they find out they can't DL materials from the Library to their Kindle. Amazon needs to let go and realize customers just want to purchase and borrow from the library. Also tight budgets prohibit tons of book purchases. Also sometimes readers just want to preview the book before buying and the library is a great place to check out books and see if the book you are interested in is really something you can get into.

Ugh. Just makes me mad. So the result is I may have to purchase the DVD anyways and Amazon will get more of my money.




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