The Joys of JAV Enhancement - A Practical, Crude, Rudimentary Guide

[Casshern2]

It is really quite amazing what can be done with some homework, a bit of drive, some GREAT material (and what JAV isn't?) and some free tools floating around the web. Standing ovation for those out there who develop these tools and say Here, look what these can do! I've said it before and you might be tired of it, but enhancing, resampling, re-encoding titles in your library can really breathe new life into them. You've seen the examples. Others (not here) shy away from such things because it seemed too complicated. But really once you've gone through the steps a few times it becomes old hat and you'll wonder why you never tried it before. Then again...if you're just interested in downloading, that's okay. Maybe you'll be downloading altered versions before long.

So, here, with your permission, I will show you how I do things and I enthusiastically invite you to share your methods because I'm hoping I can learn something, too. Now, granted, what I do isn't the end all. There are other tools out there that can do just as well and in fact better than what I use, but I'm comfortable with these and they have served me well. I will update them if an update is available but not abandon them; these are my babies. Quite a bit of what I do is a manual process, but don't let that scare you. How horrible can it be to have to watch your favorite JAV star do something over and over while you're getting things ready for the finished product? I don't think I'd see any hands up in the room to answer that question.

I'll start with a very basic one and we can go from there. I will, of course, edit after posting if I can think of anything that I missed or find a way to do things better. And I will include examples where possible. If you're feeling a bit adventurous, you'll learn how to take an old favorite and make it seem shiny and new. As they say in some places at some point...let us begin.

Making Test Clips - The Best Way to Drink the Milk Before You Buy the Cow

I had learned the hard way to make test clips before applying a change or concept on a full title. It was no fun waiting for a process to finish only to realize the outcome wasn't what I wanted or was expecting or was just flat out garbage. That was partly my reason for employing SmartScene standards on my library (that has since gone away but is yet again beginning to sound appealing for some reason). To combat this I Googled on how to cut, split, edit video files. That is how I found the tools I use:

ASFBin (WMV, ASF)
VirtualDub (AVI)
Yamb (MP4)
SolveigMM AVI Trimmer + MKV (MKV)
MediaInfo (VERY useful tool for info about your media)

All of the above tools are free on the web.

ASFBin (WMV, ASF)

Cutting One Portion of a File

The easiest files, in my opinion, to make clips from are WMV. My favorite format, really, when it comes to source material. There are GUI tools out there aplenty. I just don't like them, for some reason, so I go the manual route. Again, this is just me. Google can find things much more visual for you. The point is that it is a VERY good idea to make clips before you do things with a full file. So, if you have such a program already for WMVs, or plan to use one instead of the manual process, you can skip ahead. Otherwise...

Unzip ASFBin and place it anywhere. It is SMALL. I usually have copies of it all over the place and here's why. You will create a very small batch file to do your cutting. The batch file has to be in the same folder in order for the command line to be as small and clean and easy to read as possible. It can be done with an absolute path to ASFBin if you'd like, but I prefer this way.

Okay, so you have ASFBin in a folder with a lot of titles, or in a folder with a single title. Doesn't matter. Open Notepad and save the empty file in the same folder as ASFBin, naming it CutStartEnd.bat. If you can't or don't know how just save it as CutStartEnd.txt and then rename the file in Windows Explorer. Within the file you just need one line:

asfbin -i <filename> -o <newFilename> -start 00:00:00 -end 00:00:00

-i precedes the input file
<filename> needs to be replaced by EBOD-190.wmv or JUFD-290.wmv or whatever your file name is (ASF files as well).
-o precedes the output file
<newFilename> needs to be whatever you want the clip to be called.
-start 00:00:00 needs to be changed to the time in the title you want to start the clip, so if you want to start it 10 minutes into the movie it would be 00:10:00
-end 00:00:00 needs to be changed to the time in the title you want to end the clip, so if you want a two minute clip, based on the start time it would be 00:12:00

Start at 10 minutes into the title, end it two minutes later. So your completed command line in the batch file would read something like:

asfbin -i EBOD-190.wmv -o EBOD-190_2min.wmv -start 00:10:00 -end 00:12:00

Once you save it, your batch file is ready to go. Go to Windows Explorer and double-click it. You will see a DOS box come up with a question. Odd, I know, but without bothering to research it I guess this is so this command line program cannot be automated? No telling, but if you can do simple math and know you're alphabet you should be fine, and it is a very minor inconvenience. You will only need to answer once a session, I think. If you keep cutting a title over and over one right after the other it won't ask. You will see it run and index and then the box will go away. You now have your 2min clip to test within the same folder as the source. Sometimes it is a bit more or less so it isn't exact 100% of the time, but for making a clip to test with it works fine.

Cutting Multiple Portions of a File

The cool thing about this tool is since it is command line driven you can add multiple commands. For my purposes I do something like this:

asfbin -i EBOD-190.wmv -o EBOD-190_01.wmv -start 00:10:00 -end 00:12:00
asfbin -i EBOD-190.wmv -o EBOD-190_02.wmv -start 01:00:00 -end 01:10:00
asfbin -i EBOD-190.wmv -o EBOD-190_03.wmv -start 01:34:00 -end 01:42:00

So, taking what you've learned from the first example, you should be right in your assumption that this will output three files (EBOD-190_01.wmv, EBOD-190_02.wmv, EBOD-190_03.wmv) each at different lengths (2min, 10min, 8min, respectively) Pretty easy, huh? And now that you ask...you're right, you'll have to actually watch and seek back and forth the title to find the start and end points for your clips. Can't beat that with a stick.

Cutting and Combining - The Birth of the Fan Trailer

The best thing about this clipping process I like with ASFbin is combining what you cut. Taking the above example, to combine those parts into a final part is very easy. The full command line stack would be:

asfbin -i EBOD-190.wmv -o EBOD-190_01.wmv -start 00:10:00 -end 00:12:00
asfbin -i EBOD-190.wmv -o EBOD-190_02.wmv -start 01:00:00 -end 01:10:00
asfbin -i EBOD-190.wmv -o EBOD-190_03.wmv -start 01:34:00 -end 01:42:00
asfbin -i EBOD-190_01.wmv -i EBOD-190_02.wmv -i EBOD-190_03.wmv -o EBOD-190_trailer.wmv

Notice the last line has nothing but -i input switches. It tells ASFBin take this file, then this file, then this file and combine them into -o <thisfile>

I suppose we can add command lines to clean up and delete the three files used to create the final file. I'll add that later if you'd like. Otherwise you'll have four files at the end of it all. I just manually delete them. And of course you can use this method to simply split out the scenes from a title you want and delete the rest. This can turn a 2hr spotty title into just the two scenes you're really after.

Next up will be VirtualDub (AVI). Once I have it ready I'll add it here.

 

[Casshern2]

VirtualDub (AVI)

VirtualDub can be a bit more intimidating as it can do a whole lot of things. I only use it cut AVI files, so that is what I'll show you. We are no longer using command lines this is all point and click...and type.

Getting your file into VirtualDub

This is the easy part. Open VirtualDub then drag and drop your AVI file onto it.

EDIT! Oops, sometimes "they" package files as AVI when in fact the file is an MP4 by simply changing the file extension. Perhaps because some prefer AVI over MP4? You may receive this message:

If you do, rename the file in Windows Explorer to filename.mp4 and then use Yamb to do the cutting. I've added information on MediaInfo in the original post. This can help you avoid this. Sorry for not thinking about it until now.

So you should now see two windows next to each other. That is basically your source file (on the left) and a representation of what your file may very well look like after you do things to it in VirtualDub. Again, we're just cutting, so, enjoy seeing your JAV in stereo!

Down at the bottom you will see the slider control. This is where you move through your video. You can use the mouse to quickly move back and forth or you can use the arrow keys to move frame by frame. Hold down the arrow keys and it moves a bit quicker. Hold down the Shift and use the arrow and it goes much faster but kind of skips by a bunch of frames. Nice to get you across the file, but not good for pinpointing frames.

At the left of the slider you will find the Start Clip and End Clip buttons. These:

As they imply, click the Start Clip when your slider is at the begining of the section you want to cut, use any of the methods we just listed to move forward into the video and then click the End Clip button.

You should now see the slider has sectioned off what you want cut (in light blue between the markers).

Now, very import step coming up so don't forget. At the top menu click on the Video menu and select Direct Stream Copy.

This tells VirtualDub to just cut what you've selected with the slider. Otherwise it assumes you want to process (re-encode) your selection. Believe me, you will know if your forget that step because it takes longer to finish when this happens.

So again, go to the Video menu and select Direct Stream Copy. Ready? Press the F7 key. This brings up a familiar dialogue box. Where do you want to save your clip?

Once you select a place name your file accordingly (filename_10sec.avi). If you want it in the same folder as the source (which is what I always do) BE SURE to rename your output or VirtualDub will ask if you want to overwrite your file and you may accidentally say yes. I have on occasion in the past done that very thing and went from having a 2hr title to a 10min title. Tears...let me tell you.

That's it. Your clip should be ready where you saved it to do as you please with it.

Next up will be Yamb (MP4). Once I have it ready I'll add it here.

 

[Casshern2]

Yamb (MP4)

For MP4 files I use Yamb. Open it up.

From the main form click on Editing on the left then the Click to split MP4/M4A/MOV/3GP Files. You should then see this screen.

Click the little folder at the right of the long Input box. Use the familiar dialogue box to select your file.

Click the Split from radio button. Here you will enter your start and end times using HH:MM:SS:mmm. In this example I entered a 1 minute clip starting from 10 minutes into the file.

You can type in a file name at the end of the Output box or click browse to select another path. I simply let Yamb name it because it adds XXX_XXX to the end of the output by default, the Xs being numbers that I'm sure mean something but I don't bother. I have my clip. Click Next and you will see it being split. This file ended up being 6926_598_660.mp4