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| Content Quantity: |
20/20 |
Content Quality: |
19/20 |
Updates: |
9/10 |
| Entertainment: |
15/15 |
Navigation & Design: |
9/10 |
Download: |
5/5 |
| Value for Money: |
15/15 |
Reviewer's Tilt: |
5/5 |
Total: |
97/100 |
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Site info help
Site info valid on date of review
| Pictures: |
1,827 photosets (approx. 20-100 per set)
1280 px resolution |
| Video: |
133 DVDs/800+ scenes
Windows Media (wmv) format available (download and streaming)
Highest quality: 640x480, 2000 kbit
No DRM protection |
| Pricing: |
1 month recurring: €29.95
Special Dollar/Euro pricing info |
Pros
+ I've been praising the large Viv Thomas bonus section at Teen Dreams highly in my review of that site, but I was very recently invited to review the actual source of that bonus content, Viv Thomas Video, and it turns out the it actually has a couple of significant advantages over the Teen Dreams bonus section, even though I believe the latter has all the same content (I have however been informed that the Viv Thomas section at TD will likely be limited to streaming video rather than downloads in the future, though I don't know when that will happen).
But first things first, as much as I love the lesbian videos at Club Sandy, Pix & Video and Sapphic Erotica, Viv Thomas has been my favourite director/producer of lesbian porn since the first time I watched the censored version of the popular Pink Velvet trilogy on Playboy Channel a few years back. And this year his movies have in fact made me do something I've never done before with adult movies, ordering the physical DVD versions (so far twelve of them, including the uncensored Pink Velvet 1-3) so I could have them sitting in my DVD collection, rather than just lying around as files on my harddisks. As well as enjoying the higher video quality of course.
+ There's nothing fundamentally wrong with files or harddisks though (afterall I think on last count my own porn collection was rapidly approaching 500 GB, not counting backup of the stuff I don't want to lose), which is why Viv Thomas Video is an excellent site.
All but the very few latest Viv Thomas productions are available on this site, both his many spectacular lesbian movies as well as his guy/girl videos, which I admittedly don't care nearly as much for, as I don't particularly like the (usually) intimate, "lovemaking" style outside of lesbian porn.
+ Aside from Viv's apparent ability to bring the best possible performances out of most of his models, said models are of course the main reason why I'm so fond of his movies. They include a number of the ladies that also make me come back to Club Sandy and various other sites on a regular basis, most notably Jo, the main star of the Pink Velvet trilogy and appearing in a total of nearly 70 Viv Thomas scenes over the years (68 available on this site to be exact), Eve Angel, Nella, Sandy, Vera, Sophie Moone, Sandra Shine, Peaches, Sandy, Lisa (Cameron Cruz), Zafira and several others, including girls from the "younger" generation, like Eufrat, Ariel, Suzie Carina and Lucky.
In total though, also going back to well before the Pink Velvet days (2003-05), there are several hundred models on the site.
+ Despite the name of the site you also get over 1800 photosets (again using Jo as an example, she's in 57 of them).
+ I started out by mentioning that a couple of things made Viv Thomas Video better than the bonus section at Teen Dreams. The first of them is a fourth significantly higher video quality (640x480, 2000 kbit vs. 750 kbit at Teen Dreams). The second is a better site interface, but obviously this isn't quite as important as the video quality.
+ And with regards to the site interface, I believe it just received a major overhaul and it's generally very clean and good overall with a very solid model archive, the ability to find scenes by model, DVD or niche keywords (actually, that's a third thing this site does better, no DVD indications in the TD bonus section, and you get the behind the scenes stuff from the DVDs at Viv Thomas Video as well, which is cut out at TD), a rating and personal favourites system and slideshow feature for photosets.
+ Five new photosets and two new videos a week.
Cons
- Unfortunately the aspect ratio of the recent movies that are shot in 16:9 widescreen format (at this time still only around ten DVDs) is messed up a bit, and the image has been squashed horizontally into a standard 4:3 format (same problem with all video qualities, and obviously also an issue in the TD bonus section).
I have not been able to figure out if this can be countered by some media players, but if not (and I have a feeling it can't) this is frankly a bit of a shame, and definately one of the things that makes me even more happy that I've got my favourite scenes from recent movies on the original DVDs where they obviously haven't screwed things up.
These scenes are still watchable though, if you can live with girls and locations that look a tad "slimmer" than they ought to.
I've also been informed that there are plans for higher video qualities in the future, including HD, so hopefully this problem will eventually be fixed, at least for new videos.
(Member area screenshots)
Click here to visit Viv Thomas Video
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95+ Excellent
85-94 Very Good
75-84 Good
65-74 Acceptable
-64 Don't Bother
Full rating info here
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