TL/DR: Netflix updates VMAF to include a new model that reverses out the effects of techniques like sharpening, contrasting, and histogram equalization. As I reported in VMAF is Hackable: What Now?, you can increase VMAF scores via simple image enhancement techniques like sharpening, contrasting, and histogram equalization, which, when applied inappropriately, may not actually improve…
DetailsHappy to report a five-star review for my course, Computing and Using Video Quality Metrics: A Course for Encoding Professionals. As far as I know, it’s the only course available that teaches how to compute and use metrics like VMAF, PSNR, SSIMPLUS, and SSIM, including how to create rate-distortion curves and BD-Rate comparisons. The review…
DetailsMy wife was watching a webinar for CME and there were two physicians with such picture perfect presentation that I just had to snap the image and comment. The list of what these two did right is lengthy and instructive. Both practiced perfect rule-of-thirds positioning, with their eyes about 1/3 down from the top of the…
DetailsAV1 encoding is now only 2x slower than x265. See the latest results here. I began testing AV1 early this week. Briefly, my tests involve 16 ten-second clips in four genres (movies, sports, animations, gaming) and an “other” category (music video, nature video). I’ve completed the first set of tests with FFmpeg 4.3, benchmarking x264,…
DetailsI’m reviewing AV1 encoders for Streaming Media Magazine and was performing some QC on the AV1 files that I produced with the latest version of FFmpeg. Two file details I always check are GOP size and whether the GOPs are closed or not. I check these for multiple reasons. First, FFmpeg doesn’t have the most…
DetailsThis article details how Brazilian OTT operator Telecine deployed MediaMelon SmartPlay and decreased bandwidth costs by about 42% while improving the MOS quality of the video delivered. SmartPlay also helped Telecine manage the 4X increase in demand due to COVID-19. This is the third and final story about MediaMelon SmartPlay. The first article describes how…
DetailsAV1 encoding is now only 2x slower than x265. See the latest results here. I’m comparing AV1 encoders for Streaming Media Magazine. I plan to include codecs from: The Alliance for Open Media (hopefully versions 1.0/2.0) Visionular Intel Mozilla (Mozilla is out – didn’t respond to my inquiry). If there are any other codecs that…
DetailsOn its preview page for Apple TV 4K, Apple announced that the update to tvOS 14, which is expected to ship this fall, will support “YouTube videos in their full 4K glory.” By way of background, YouTube produces most 1080p videos using H.264 which plays everywhere but produces larger resolutions using either the VP9 or…
DetailsIn the previous post, I described what MediaMelon SmartPlay is and identified some of the benefits. In this post, I’ll discuss pricing and how to integrate SmartPlay into your encoding, delivery, and playback infrastructure. Pricing Overview Let’s briefly discuss the SmartPlay pricing model here and look at ROI at the end of this document. There…
DetailsI recently recorded about ten interviews for a webinar produced by a client. I could have used Zoom or Skype but thought that I could achieve better quality by producing the videos with vMix Call. Briefly, vMix is a live streaming software package and Call is the feature that lets you connect with others via…
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