Why is JAV image quality and encoding still looking like in 2005?

[f4ust85]

While the narratives and nichés in JAV are clearly developing (unlike American production namely, which is almost morbidly generic and 9 releases out of 10 are greatly schematic gonzo of ex-strippers on the wrong side of 30), I have a strong feeling that the technical side behind JAV releases is very much absolutely the same as it was a decade ago around 2005 when I first got into it: fairly low image resolution, low contrast, blurry and pixelated, even the rips are almost always in sub-divx quality, with 3-4 hour movies encoded onto 2CD size, the lighting and camera/picture quality being pretty low, rarely theres any depth of field, prime lenses or higher framerate visible. On the other hand, western releases are almost always shot in fullHD or even 4K nowadays (even for web) and circulating rips are routinely even 8GB big - i.e. about 4 times the encoding quality of most JAV. Is there a trend or any reasoning behind this? Is the asian market still using obsolete formats like VCD, and therefore pushing image quality down on their DVDs already, or is it only about the rips? Why is the small file-size so key, is it because most JAV enthusiasts create huge collections and dont want to store hundreds of BluRay sized mp4 rips? Does anyone else find it frustrating to watch something that looks like a blurry RealVideo file back in the stoneage of dial-up internet?

 

[EroMura777]

pixelated

I see what you did there.

 

[StageNinja47]

Japan still buys most of their media on DVD/CD, streaming service aren't even very popular.. So production is aimed towards that physical media, there's a multitude of reasons for this but Japan just loves it's physical media and is the #1 market for CDs in the world I believe.. As for your questions about bad encodes, that has nothing to do with JAV production companies and everything to do with lazy rippers and encoders wanting to be the first ones out. If you want quality you'll have to wade through the releases and look for quality releases.

I get what your say, but the one thing that seems kind of weird is that they haven't seem to switch over completely to blu-ray. I get wanted or liking to buy physical media. But it still surprise the dvds seem to be more widely user and still the standard. Specially given that blu-ray dics have so much storage space, which would allow all video to be shot in fhd (1080p). All that extra space could also be use store other things like extra like photo slide show, behind the scene interview as well as way more preview or trailers for upcoming dvd releases and new debuts.

 

[Inertia]

A lot of studios have been filming in HD for years now. A few we work with directly have been doing so since 2009-10. Now there are some experimenting with 4K like Knight's Visual.
The problem is BluRay adoption has never taken off as well as DVDs. I'm also not 100% sure on this one, but BluRay's may be costlier to press too.

You do now see some studios release online in HD format so you've an option for better quality digitally.

Most of the rippers are encoding from DVD and oftentimes very poorly without any quality control hence the poor uploads floating around.

 

[pikuseru]

Japan still buys most of their media on DVD/CD

Even by DVD standards the picture quality of JAV DVDs are terrible. It's all still single layer DVDs (4.7GB max), never dual layer (8.5GB max), so videos are more compressed and lower resolution. The resolution of JAV DVDs is 480i instead of 480p (i.e. 720x240 instead 720x480). So JAV DVD's have only half the resolution that the DVD format capable of... A lot of very early DVDs especially in the 90s were like this, modern DVDs are never single layer/480i anymore, it's very outdated. Yet that the way DVDs are for JAV, even in 2016.

 

[Casshern2]

Perhaps for as illustrious and well produced the DVD covers make the releases seem
..it is only porn to them. Not worthy of anything spectacular?

 

[Supmop]

Japan still buys most of their media on DVD/CD, streaming service aren't even very popular.. So production is aimed towards that physical media, there's a multitude of reasons for this but Japan just loves it's physical media and is the #1 market for CDs in the world I believe.. As for your questions about bad encodes, that has nothing to do with JAV production companies and everything to do with lazy rippers and encoders wanting to be the first ones out. If you want quality you'll have to wade through the releases and look for quality releases.

totally agree with you

I get what your say, but the one thing that seems kind of weird is that they haven't seem to switch over completely to blu-ray. I get wanted or liking to buy physical media. But it still surprise the dvds seem to be more widely user and still the standard. Specially given that blu-ray dics have so much storage space, which would allow all video to be shot in fhd (1080p). All that extra space could also be use store other things like extra like photo slide show, behind the scene interview as well as way more preview or trailers for upcoming dvd releases and new debuts.

I know its weird for high tech country still using DVD, I read some magazines that DVD will still be number one media for at least 5 years more

I think the reason is for watching videos in DVD with their SD format we can use old TV, while bluray with FHD we must buy LED

 

[Supmop]

A lot of studios have been filming in HD for years now. A few we work with directly have been doing so since 2009-10. Now there are some experimenting with 4K like Knight's Visual.
The problem is BluRay adoption has never taken off as well as DVDs. I'm also not 100% sure on this one, but BluRay's may be costlier to press too.

You do now see some studios release online in HD format so you've an option for better quality digitally.

agree with you, so far that I know bluray is still more expenesive to produce

with current market condition, I understand why many JAV studios still keep using DVDs

Most of the rippers are encoding from DVD and oftentimes very poorly without any quality control hence the poor uploads floating around.

yes, thats what we get from free pirated stuff

 

[Supmop]

*watches Yipman's releases"

the quality hasn't looked better. Looks like bluray, even on my 150" projection.

but yea, most modern jav are released digitally in FHD, it's just that most rippers don't care about quality.

and getting worst when they put those advertisement text

 

[needs more loli]

*watches Yipman's releases"

the quality hasn't looked better. Looks like bluray, even on my 150" projection.

but yea, most modern jav are released digitally in FHD, it's just that most rippers don't care about quality.

Wait a minute... you watch JAV on a projector lol?

Anyway back to the original question... I've noticed that several studios still use handycams with natural light, typically for r*** or gonzo style videos because it emulates a realistic filming scenario. But aside from that most studios seem to use good lighting and a decent camera setup, especially for stuff shot on a set. If you're only seeing VCD quality, blurry, low contrast, low bit-rate JAVs you might want to look for some higher quality rips.

But about depth of field and frame rate (more importantly shutter speed), I would love to see more studios take a more cinematic approach to filming JAV. I think Knights Visual has the most cinematic shooting style at the moment. You can tell that they are using a large sensor camera, probably a DSLR or cinema camera, and large aperture lenses. In some of their newer videos it even looks like they are shooting in a log profile. Their actresses are also very well lit. Some of their scenes looks more like art than porn haha.

 

[dafuck]

.

 

[dafuck]

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[Casshern2]

There is another way??

I watch in my GearVR which makes even SD titles look great like their being shown on a full size movie theater screen. That's my other way.

 

[Ghostbird]

I hope that jav studios start producing 4k titles before my favorite performers retire.

 

[darksider59]

I watch jav in all kinds of way haha. Usually on a 40" 4k hdtv. But sometimes I treat myself to watching them on my projector, when I want them to be life size

I thought this image I just took would demonstrate how good JAV can look (even at 150") if done right (Yipman), but I forgot how bad my phone camera is. So you will have to take my word for it lol. It's crystal clear in person...

View attachment 859018
IBW-579 at 01:07 mark

I played few times porn (western porn at that time) on my 42" (3D) LED TV when it was placed in my bedroom in my previous house. Now I can't do that anymore as the room configuration isn't good enough for a "TV space" in my bedroom (I have a Mezzanine bed). I use a 10" netbook to watch JAV in my bed (I keep my regular laptop and my desktop computer in my working space in another room).

It must be really cool to watch JAV in high definition on a big screen and enjoy yourself right in front of it.

 

[Inertia]

Ghostbird: Knight's Visual is doing 4K now. They sometimes feature some pretty big names so you may want to check them out.

 

[pikuseru]

I think they should release the 1080p videos at higher bitrate. 6000kbps is good for 720p, but not quite enough for 1080p. 1080p probably should be like 10000kbps or something.

 

[Ghostbird]

Ghostbird: Knight's Visual is doing 4K now. They sometimes feature some pretty big names so you may want to check them out.

KV-145 was the only one I could find

http://www.knights-visual.com/works/furasupi/oshaburi_yobiko/kv-145/

Produced 2 years ago when 4k wasn't really a thing.

Spoiler

Also a no name actress.

 

[StageNinja47]

and getting worst when they put those advertisement text

I complete agree. I don't mine if you wanted a little bit of recognition for your work and decide to put in your user-tag/name for some free advertisement. But it gets really annoying and distracting when they put these giant and bright yellow letter all over the screen. On producer uploader that i come to like an choice when they they have a version of a video is available is [Thz.la]. He has recently use a watermark in the lower corner of all his videos. Which you can easy ignored when watching a video, but is their if you look for it. I wish more people use these type of marker.

I watch jav in all kinds of way haha. Usually on a 40" 4k hdtv. But sometimes I treat myself to watching them on my projector, when I want them to be life size

I thought this image I just took would demonstrate how good JAV can look (even at 150") if done right (Yipman), but I forgot how bad my phone camera is. So you will have to take my word for it lol. It's crystal clear in person...

View attachment 859018
IBW-579 at 01:07 mark

I LOL when I notice the soda can. It just seem so out off place to point out in the picture. I too like to watch jav on different medias. typically on my hd tv (1080p), as well as a my desktop, laptop and phone. So I'm with you on that front. I would like to watch JAV in a life size projector. So lucky you is all I have to say about that.

Insert extra features have a cost!
(and like Supmop said, bluray is more expenesive to produce)

I'm not talking abou full blow production extres with graphics and dedicated on location photo shoots. I was think more along the lines of a quick interview before and after they shoot the film. Something along the lines of what are your shooting today? are you nervous about tying "insert blank" for the first time? what are you looking forward to filming today? How was the shoot? What was your favorite scene to shoot? Did you have fun today?

I would also like to see simple behind the scene clips, like quick video seeing what happens in between breaks or lunch, or a crew member filming how the JAV is shoot. They don't we an extra camera to film these scene. I think that shooting these extra on a crew members/editors cell phone camera would actual add and give a more intimate and raw feel to the clips. The same would go for quick pics and photo shoots.

I assume that something along the lines of these suggestion would go along way to add simple and cheap extras. what do you think. if anything they would just add a little extra time and effort more than any signification cost to the video production.

There is another way??

That looks like a good and fun way to watch JAVs.

 

[Supmop]

I complete agree. I don't mine if you wanted a little bit of recognition for your work and decide to put in your user-tag/name for some free advertisement. But it gets really annoying and distracting when they put these giant and bright yellow letter all over the screen. On producer uploader that i come to like an choice when they they have a version of a video is available is [Thz.la]. He has recently use a watermark in the lower corner of all his videos. Which you can easy ignored when watching a video, but is their if you look for it. I wish more people use these type of marker.

I don't mind for recognition marker, its the ripper & uploader's right, and those not annoying

there are the different between guys who put recognition tag for their work and some asshole who works as promotors