List of Viva DVDs to avoid

[techdude]

This thread will list DVDs released by Viva which are on DVD5 and as such, are inferior in terms of picture quality, audio quality and content when compared to their counterparts in Region 1 (USA, Canada) countries.  Only non-local films are included.  Also not included are DVDs geared towards children.  The list will be continually updated as my free time allows and as more Viva releases more of these junks.  I truly hope one day, Viva will see the light of day, and this thread would not be necessary.

Rationale for this thread: Viva is notorious for releasing both good (most Fox and Disney releases which are priced at 750 when first released) and bad (mostly but not limited to arthouse and independent studios releases priced at 375 on debut).  Despite the numerous thread on this topic (ie. thread on difference between DVD5 and DVD9), there are still people don't know how to spot the difference.  This thread will make it easier to identify these lemons.

Viva DVDs to avoid:

1408
3:10 to Yuma
Accidental Husband, The
Adaptation
Air I Breathe, The
Ali
Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me
Babel
Bachelor, The
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
Bank Job
Banquet, The
Basic
Battle for Terra
Because I Said So
Beyond a Reasonable Doubt
Blade
Blade and the Rose, The
Blast From The Past
Bounce
Breed, The
Bride of Chucky
Brokeback Mountain
Bruno Complete features but DVD5, so picture quality would suffer on big screen TVs
Burn After Reading
Catacomb
Chanting 2, The
Chinese Tall Story, A
Chocolat
Cider House Rules
Coffin, The
Confession of a Shopaholic the 1-disc no-frills version
Confidence
Crank
Crank 2: High Voltage
Crow 4
Death Defying Acts
District 9
Dinotopia
Drag Me to hell (unrated)
Echo
Eye, The
Fierce People
Final Cut, The
Forbidden Kingdom
Kate and Leopold
Killing Fields
Grace is Gone
Grey Matters
Groomsmen, The
Grudge 2, The
Halloween
Halloween 2
Halloween II
Harsh Times
Haunting in Connecticut
Horsemen
Hotel Rwanda
Hunted
I Could Never Be Your Woman
Igor
Imagine You and Me
Infection
In The Bedroom
Ip Man
It's a BoyGirl Thing
It's Alive
Jake Speed
Jason and the Argonauts (Hallmark)
Juno
Law Abiding Citizen
Life Is Beautiful
Loss of a Teardrop Diamond
Management
Marine 2
Master of Mass Destruction
Megasnake
Messenger, The
Milk
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
Miss Potter
More than a Game
Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium
My Best Friend's Girl
My Boss' Daughter
My Life in Ruins
My Sassy Girl (2008)
Myth, The
Nanny Diaries
New In Town
New Police Story
Next Best Thing, The
Odyssey, The
Ongbak 2
Open Water
P2
Paranormal Activity
Prince & Me 2: Royal Wedding
Proof
Reader, The
Rebound, The (Catherine Zeta-Jones)
Red Cliff
Reincarnation
Righteous Kill
Rouge Assassin
Rules of Engagement
Rush Hour
Saw
Saw II
Saw III
Saw IV
Scream 3
Scream V
Serendipity
Shaolin Girl
She's All That
Shinjuku Incident
Shipping News
Sleuth
Slither
Slumdog Millionaire
Solstice, The
Spirit, The
Spy Game
Strange Wilderness
Taken
Three Kingdoms
Traffic
Twilight
Two Lovers
Unfinished Business, An
Vicky Cristina Barcelona
View from the top
Waiting
Warlord
Wedding Date
Wedding Singer
Whisper
White Noise
White Noise 2
Why did I get married
Women, The
Y Tu Mama Tambein
Young Victoria

If you come across any Viva DVD that are of dubious quality, please post them here and I will include them in this first post.

Also do point out any errors in my list as I don't own most of them.

Last updated: March 28, 2010 8:36pm

Newest additions to the list of undesirables from Viva

Marine 2
More than a Game
Beyond Reasonable Doubt
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
Law Abiding Citizen
Ongbak 2
Two Lovers
Halloween II
Paranormal Activity
The Rebound
Red Cliff
Young Victoria

[techdude]

Since people still get confused by releases from Viva which are of good quality (Fox, Disney), I decided to update this thread with a sample guide of DVD covers from Viva/Disney, Viva/Fox, and Viva/others and what to look for in them.  The pics are done in haste (I'm busy ) so pardon the low and amateurish quality.

Spotting a Viva Disney/ABC release:



1.  You get the Disney Logo on the spine, that should give you an indication this is probably a DVD9.
2.  Most of the time, Disney titles from Viva has this box, inside the region code, aspect ratio, running time, and DVD type is indicated.  Under it is the Viva Video wordings, ignore this, as long as it's Disney, it's most likely a good DVD.

_______________





Spotting a Viva 20th Century Fox release:



1.  Like Disney releases, the spine will indicate the company logo.  This time it's 20th Century Fox's.
2.  Most Fox releases has a box like the one indicated here in one form or another, again, The aspect ratio, sound options, and subtitles are often indicated.  Most Fox releases don't include information about the DVD type (DVD5 or DVD9), but more than likely it will be a DVD9.  Again, Most Fox releases are A-Okay.

_______________






Spotting a Viva DVD to avoid:

Now this is the way to find DVDs from Viva to avoid.



1.  It's most likely to have three Viva Video logos on the front (Small), on the spine, and on the back. If you see those, it should be warning that the DVD is likely to be of doubtful quality in terms of picture-quality (PQ), audio quality (AQ), and extras.  
2. On the spine is a catalogue number in this format VPI-DVD-09-123.  The '123' is variable, for Ip Man pictured above, the number is 290, whether that means Viva has already released 290 of these DVD5s, I do not know for sure, but it seems likely, since the number seems to be consecutive.

These types of DVDs are most likely DVD5s and as such, compromises in terms of PQ, AQ, and extras have been made to fit the contents on the smaller capacity DVD5.

Disclaimer:  This is a general guide, and not all DVD5/DVDs to avoid are in this format.  Some like The Banquet comes in thinline packaging and doesn't carries the signs indicated above.  Also, there's no guarantee that Viva will not change it's packaging in future releases or re-releases.

To sum this up, for the nth time, most (if not all) Disney-ABC, Fox releases from Viva are mostly likely DVD9 and mirror closely Region 1 releases.   Viva releases from independent studios like Lionsgate, Miramax, and Asian film outfits are suspect.  Look for the signs indicated above and/or check this thread.  

In closing, I really do hope that Viva would eventually wake up and give us our money's worth and I would be able to close this thread for good....  until then, if you come across any errors in my postings or happen to find one lemon from Viva that's not posted here, please post in this thread.

[newwaveboy]

Up ....... can confirm the poor video & audio quality of Life Is Beautiful.

Actually, even during the VHS-era ..... had noticed the crappy quality tapes that this company brings out.

[reinerr]

pakidagdag

Kate and Leopold

it was free when I bought Life is Beautiful

kainis yung menus, parang sa PC lang ginawa in a matter of minutes...

[allanmandy]

+ Twilight (as if the film itself isn't reason enough to avoid buying the DVD  )

[eckxs]

please add:
1408
The Grudge 2
The Messengers
Miss Potter
Adaptation.
Chocolat
Halloween
Ali
3:10 to Yuma
Sleuth
Why Did I Get Married?

[carlo]

Please add Because I Said So and I Could Never Be Your Woman to the list, "VCD"ish PQ.

[tonedeaf]

i confirm re Chocolat. No subtitle or any other extra features (not even a trailer).

[eckxs]

please remove Phonebooth and Little Miss Sunshine. They're not included there. Add Spy Game, White Noise, White Noise 2, The Women, She's All That, Blade, My Boss's Daughter, Imagine You and Me, Waiting..., The Crow 4, Fierce People, The Shipping News, The Breed.

[jm33_babe]

Wedding Singer
Jake Speed

(no subtitles or extra features)
(fullscreen)

[techdude]

Wedding Singer

(no subtitles or extra features)

Is this Viva?  New Line kasi sa States...mostly C Interactive ang nag-cacarry ng New Line.  As for Jake Speed, not too familiar with that title but added to the list.

[jm33_babe]

both have Viva logos at the back

[techdude]

^ Ok.  Thanks.  Too many lemons from Viva, my mind is not keeping up... 

[techdude]

+ Twilight (as if the film itself isn't reason enough to avoid buying the DVD 

Never thought I'd missed that one.  Maybe I was thinking Php 375 titles...

please remove Little Miss Sunshine.

Oooops.  My mistake.  I vaguely remember there were some complaint about this title then (I bought the Region 1 version) but don't know what.  So I posted it.  A quick search on this boards and it turns out the complaint is tardiness not content.  Title removed. 

[shibby]

Wedding Singer is a crappy viva release, i have that. Put Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me on that list as well. Crap! Crap! Crap!

[dyerds]

Please add Crank. This has poor AQ (2.1) and PQ.

You can always ask a salesperson to test the DVD first before buying it if you are in doubt about the item especially if it's VIVA. 

[Atticus]

Wow ang haba na pala ng list. Grabe. Sana ma-realize ng mga VIVA people yung quality ng mga release nila through this thread.

[viper]

This list is quite helpful. Now I know which titles to get from abroad.

Why not boycott Viva releases altogether.

[Mr. Hankey]

Why not boycott Viva releases altogether.

Because their Fox and Disney (especially Platinum) editions are at-par-with-R1 huge bargains, especially by the time they drop to 299.

[eckxs]

please add The Final Cut and Halloween II and Bride of Chucky.

[thebat]

Viva = Full of Crap = Avoid totally!!!

Can we make a petition to all original video owners in the US and tell-all what a crap of a company Viva is!? Well we can send them this crappy list as proof (to avoid slander).

[techdude]

Viva = Full of Crap = Avoid totally!!!

Can we make a pe***on to all original video owners in the US and tell-all what a crap of a company Viva is!? Well we can send them this crappy list as proof (to avoid slander).

Not as easy as you think.  First, Disney and Fox releases are largely good.  Most of these bad titles are from independent studios like Weinstein  and the royalties received by these companies from the Philippines might be minuscule to warrant their attention.   A large part of these titles (mostly those from the horror genre) are from Asian film outfits which are happy to have their film distributed elsewhere and doesn't care about quality...

Anyone knows if Lust Caution was released on DVD.  I seemed to remember it is and should belong to this list.  But it's no longer in Astro shelves that I'd been to...

[allanmandy]

I've only seen the VCD of Lust, Caution. Not sure if Viva released the DVD.

[frootloops]

How about those with MGM labels? Not sure if MGM is now under FOX or not.

[JohnE.]

rogue assassin if not yet on the list.

[allanmandy]

How about those with MGM labels? Not sure if MGM is now under FOX or not.

The Viva MGM's are mostly okay as well. Basically, DVD's released by Viva that aren't from Disney, Touchstone, Fox or MGM, are awful.

[frootloops]

The Viva MGM's are mostly okay as well. Basically, DVD's released by Viva that aren't from Disney, Touchstone, Fox & MGM, are awful.

Great! My wife bought Thomas Crown Affair yesterday and I am wary that it might be a waste. Not really a fan of Viva except for their Disney releases. Many thanks.

[allanmandy]

I just realized, Drag Me To Hell was theatrically released by Viva, and it wasn't produced by those four film outfits I mentioned before. For sure the local DVD release would be crap. Dang!

[Aberforth777]

I just realized, Drag Me To Hell was theatrically released by Viva, and it wasn't produced by those four film outfits I mentioned before. For sure the local DVD release would be crap. Dang!

Wow. Kala ko Magna maghandle ng DVD release nito, since Universal distributor.

[allanmandy]

No, Viva even has this on its website: link

By the way, all those other movies in their website have been released as crappy DVD's.