Subjective video quality

Subjective video quality is video quality as experienced by humans. It is concerned with how video is perceived by a viewer (also called "observer" or "subject") and designates their opinion on a particular video sequence. It is related to the field of Quality of Experience. Measuring subjective video quality is necessary because objective quality assessment algorithms such as PSNR have been shown to correlate poorly with subjective ratings. Subjective ratings may also be used as ground truth to develop new algorithms. Subjective video quality tests are psychophysical experiments in which a number of viewers rate a given set of stimuli. These tests are quite expensive in terms of time (preparation and running) and human resources and must therefore be carefully designed. In subjective video quality tests, typically, SRCs ("Sources", i.e. original video sequences) are treated with various conditions (HRCs for "Hypothetical Reference Circuits") to generate PVSs ("Processed Video Sequences"). The main idea of measuring subjective video quality is similar to the mean opinion score (MOS) evaluation for audio. To evaluate the subjective video quality of a video processing system, the following steps are typically taken: Choose original, unimpaired video sequences for testing Choose settings of the system that should be evaluated Apply settings to the SRC, which results in the test sequences Choose a test method, describing how sequences are presented to viewers and how their opinion is collected Invite a panel of viewers Carry out testing in a specific environment (e.g. a laboratory context) and present each PVS in a certain order to every viewer Calculate rating results for individual PVSs, SRCs and HRCs, e.g. the MOS Many parameters of the viewing conditions may influence the results, such as room illumination, display type, brightness, contrast, resolution, viewing distance, and the age and educational level of viewers. It is therefore advised to report this information along with the obtained ratings.