fifonik
[REQUEST] Make this program accessible to basic users
Hello. I discovered this program while searching for a way to determine how good a encoded video with x264 is compared to the original source (blu-ray disc). But after using the program, I haven't been able to resolve my doubts.
Please, I suggest adding things to make this program accessible to a wider range of users, especially basic users, since currently it seems that this program requires you to be a video encoding nerd and have read books, white papers and the complete official documentation about Visual Quality Metrics algorithms like PSNR / SSIM / VMAF...
I'm just requesting that please if you can make this program more accessible to users who are not gurus in this field.
The program is very good, but it lacks help information for non-expert users.
Please note I was using v1.5.1 beta
These are my humble suggestions:
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Add a legend to the graph, briefly explaining the meaning of each color, and explaining whether a higher value is better or worse.
I currently have these graphs, all in green, there is no other color, and I have no idea what it means or if it is good or bad:
(VMAF graph is empty by the way, and although the program realized the procedure and put the result in the VMAF column. I have FFMPEG 7.1.1)
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Add visual cues in the PSNR / SSIM / VMAF columns (for example paint the cell in green, yellow or red color) and maybe also add some brief description too, explaining whether the result is good or is bad, and how good or how bad and/or why. Just adding visual cues and also tips to help a basic user be able figure out whether the result is good or is bad.
I currently have these results, and again I have no idea what it means or if it is good or bad:
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Add the maximum values of the PSNR / SSIM / VMAF metrics (in case of they have theoretical limits, which I don't know) in the results cell, like for example in SSIM column: 0.9960 / 1.0 (which 1.0 is the max value I've invented in this example), so the end user can understand how far or how near is the resulting metric number from the optimal result / max value for that metric algorithm.
Please note that those Min. / Max. values of the screenshot I don't know if they already refer to this, but anyway it is somewhat hidden in that way and is cryptic for basic users.
That's all. Thank you for read. I hope these suggestions are welcome!
Sincerely, Elektro.
- X asis -- frames (I will try to add it on the axis). Y asis -- frame's metric value. If you hover mouse over the plot -- you will see frame number and its metric value. Metric's value means "how much the frame in two videos differ". There is no "good" or "bad". If you resize & encode 4K footage into 640x480, the file/frames metric will be low. This does not mean the video is bad as it might be encoded for playing on tiny screens only. So it is up to user to decide what is good and what is bad. Usually, people who using the program have at least 3 files: reference and two distorted (they got by processing/encoding the reference with different workflow & encoder settings). And the program can answer the question: "What workflow lose less details so keeps better quality from the original".
- There are green/red in the tooltip. Add more than one distorted file and calc again. The program will mark the best value in green and the worst in red.
- I will think where I can add metrics possible min/max values (PSNR: 0-100, SSIM: 0-1, VMAF: 0-100). Min/max in tooltip is different beast. It shows min/max value from frames. One frame in distorted video can be "very similar" to frame in reference and so have high score, while another frame can have many processing/encoding artifacts and so have low score. This is what you see on plots -- metric value per frame. In table the metric value displayed "averaged" per file.
The video quality comparison topic is a bit complicated and require some user knowledge. Unfortunately, I do not have plans to add any info about metrics themselves into the program. There are many articles explaining that. Sorry.
VMAF graph is empty by the way, and although the program realized the procedure and put the result in the VMAF column
Please follow troubleshooting steps. It is possible that value is 100 -- put mouse pointer near the top and you may see the tooltip with info. I will try to make the line not disappear on the max value.
In my local I've already added titles for axes, min/max for metrics and slightly abjusted paddings so 100 should not be clipped.