Beverly Hills Chihuahua DVD: Imported Asia Disney DVD

I ordered Beverly Hill Chihuahua last week from Trident DVD and it arrived this morning, it’s a really high quality Asian import that is distributed by Pacific Marketing who are a bona fide licensed distributor for fully genuine Asian Disney DVDs.

What’s interesting is that I also ordered the Region 1 USA version from Amazon and I must say that the Asian version is far higher quality, both the packaging and the picture quality of the Asian version are far higher than the USA edition that I bought on Amazon.  Also, It’s always nice to have a Disney Hologram and the USA version has no hologram (this is normal on many USA Disney DVDs now) but this Asian one does have the Genuine Disney Hologram on the front.

Not all Asian Disney have holograms and to further confuse things many fakes DO have holograms whilst many genuine ones do not.  This always comes as a surprise to European Disney DVD buyers because UK and European edition always seem to have holograms on the cover and newer titles even have a hologram embeded in the center of the physical DVD.

This edition includes some nice extras including an animated short entitles ‘The Legend of The Chihuahua” and a nice commentary by the director Raja Gosnell.

Disney’s The Little Mermaid Special Edition from Pacific Marketing

Disney the Little Mermaid DVD

Pacific Marketing is currently my favorite Asian distributor of genuine Disney DVDs, and this is a very good example of a high quality genuine release which can be bought in Asia for as little as £3.

It’s incredible to UK and European buyers that real Disney DVDs can be that cheap, but it’s true.  Pacific Marketing is only one of a handful of licenced distributors of Disney DVDs, but  for me they represent the best quality at a good price.

This edition features all the extras, including Music Video, Games & Backstage Features.  It has only English writing on the front cover, and a mixture of English and Thai on the back cover, it has English and other languages such as Korean, Manadrin etc and as with all DVDs any subtitles can be switched off easily with the subtitle button on the DVD remote.

Like so many new releases of Disney DVDs this is copy protected, so results on PC’s and some DVD recorders may vary, though it plays on my Mac it does not play on my Panasonic DVR recorder (but these days very few new titles do!).

All in all this is great value for money.  A few sellers on eBay and on the ‘net are selling this import version, if you are buying on eBay make sure that the seller mentions the distributor as “Pacific Marketing and Entertainment Group and the barcode number is 8856021 035307, if in doubt ask because we all know that eBay is a magnet for counterfeit sellers, better to stick to professional sellers on websites.

eBay & FACT spread lies and misinformation

Ever since eBay got fined 60 Million for allowing the sale of counterfeit handbags they have been promoting themselves as “fighting counterfeit”, and they even link now to a page made by FACT with tips on how to tell a counterfeit DVD.. trouble is that information is total rubbish and likely only to add confusion.

First on the FACT checklist is “Is the film currently being shown in the cinema”, OK this is the most sensible bit of advice on the page, however many films are on at the cinema in the UK whilst they have already been released overseas, it should be made clear that this can only apply to UK Region 2 DVDs.

Next they link to a site that suggests that it allows you to check if a film has been released on DVD, THIS IS RUBBISH and should be ignored, it’s so incorrect that it’s an insult to your intelligence.

Next, FACT ask “does the film have a company hologram on the inner sleeve”, though they go on to say that MOST legitimate DVDs now carry a hologram!  In other words, ignore this completely because it’s highly likely that the DVD may actually have a hologram and still be real.

Next bit of advice, “Does the DVD come in a Plastic Case or Card Box”, and they go on to explain that illegal copies are often sold in polythene wallets.   What planet are these people on, all the counterfeits I have seen in the UK are normally in Plastic Boxes.

Now a real cracker  “Is the film title hand written on the DVD itself”… this is so stupid it does not deserve consideration.

Next, is the DVD release date the correct one.  Hmm, when did you last see a release date on a DVD box, and given that in any country the release date could differ by years, months or days this advice is worthless

Now the really offensive bit of advice, “does the DVD claim to be “All Region”.  Then they add that DVD from the UK should be Region 2.   This advice is incorrect and stupid, true most recent movies are released in the UK as Region 2, but lots and lots of older movies are released as “All Region” in the UK and genuine DVDs in many countries are normally released as “All Region” and still totally authentic.. IN FACT (Pun Not Intended) THERE ARE MORE LEGITIMATE ALL-REGION DVDS IN THE WORLD THAN REGION-2 !

FACT are showing themselves to be a bunch of morons who appear to have their heads stuck up their arses and are not in touch with reality.

Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End, Thailand Release.

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End just landed on my desk, but this one is a thoroughly genuine release from Pacific Marketing (Thailand), it’s a high quality DVD but the buyer was concerned for three reasons:

1. The buyer complained that there was no hologram on the DVD itself, I’m not entirely sure why the buyer would feel that there should be as very few Disney DVD’s (or any for that matter) have been manufactured with a hologram on the DVD.

2. The buyer was concerned that the Hologram was on the front of the packaging and the text in the back of the hologram says BVHE. The buyer was not justified in this instance as the hologram is quite right to say BVHE as that means “Buena Vista Home Entertainment”, also this distribution does have the hologram on the front of the packaging and there is no problem with that, many other genuine imports also have the hologram on the front bottom left.

3. The buyer thought that the printing on the DVD printed side looked wrong. The printing on the printed side of the DVD is correct, though I appreciate that it can cause confusion where no region is marked on the DVD itself, in this instance the DVD is thoroughly genuine.

It’s also interesting to note that this DVD is copy protected and does not play on many PC’s with DVD software and I have heard that it will not play on some DVD recorder machines, these are getting quite common now in the home and are often used as a primary DVD player, so if you are thinking about buying a DVD recorder you may want to keep a plain old DVD player also.

This costs about 3 UK pounds, or 6 US dollars in Thailand, amazing value in my opinion and it’s a totally genuine and fully licensed Disney DVD.