Video Codec Scoring System ViCoS

Introduction

This system is developped and supported by YUVsoft Corp.
Detailed information is available at ViCoS page

Main purpose of the system is to automatically evaluate quality of modern video codec and video filters using objective quality metrics and sequences modification. Both overall quality of the codec and quality of separate codec parts can be analyzed using the system. Same framework can be used for codec external options analysis and best presets automatically selection for given test set.

Use Cases

Main use cases of the ViCoS system are the following:

• Video Codec Comparison and Evaluation
• Video Codec Analysis
• Presets Selection and Analysis

Video Codec Comparison and Evaluation

Video codec comparison and evaluation is important task both for video codec developers and major users. Video codecs are complex entities and require complex methods of evaluation. Number of important tasks should be solved for correct video comparison, such as: sequences and bitrate selection, correct visual quality estimation and comparison, storing and reusing produced data and many others. Our system is designed to automate process of codecs comparison. Following actions should be done for that:

• Define codecs and presets. Any codec, which can be launch using batch files, are suitable for using in ViCoS system.
• Define sequences. Number of formats is supported including I420 colorspaces and interlaced sequences.
• Define schedule, which includes lists of codecs, presets, sequences, bitrates and metrics.
• Start the system. It will launch corresponding codecs and calculate defined metrics. System is stable: you can stop it any time without significant data losses
• Use the results in textual form for further processing or in binary form for reusage with the system.
• Use MATLAB Visualization Toolbox for fast results analysis

Video Codec Analysis

Video codec analysis is next step after codec comparison. It is used for better understanding of codec strong and weak places, get additional information of different codec’s part such as Motion Estimation algorithm, Rate Control algorithms and so on.

We use natural sequences modifications and synthetic sequences with known characteristics to analyze codecs in different ways. There are several levels of analysis results understanding:

• System provides final score for codecs, which includes results of selected by user analyzers.
• More information can be found in analyzers scores and detailed analyzer reports.
• Last level of results analysis is per-frame and per-sequence metrics values for all performed launches.

Presets Selection and Analysis

Presets analysis is used for tuning of video codec as finished product. We used description of codec’s parameters to dynamically create codec’s presets and launch codecs to get presets characteristics, such as encoding visual quality and encoding speed. Following tasks can be solved using this part of the system:

• Selection of best preset with fixed speed or fastest preset with fixed quality. Such selection is useful during codec’s comparison.
• Best presets selection for all tradeoffs between speed and quality. It is useful for default presets generation.
• Analysis of codecs parameters including use cases of usage, overall parameter performance, etc.

System Customization

Flexible customization is available for ViCoS system purchasing. There are five different editions, which can be optimal in different use cases. See ViCoS at YUVsoft Corp. for more information about editions.

Additional features can be implemented for customers by special request.

Contacts

E-mail: videocodec-testing@graphics.cs.msu.ru