Institute for Telecommunication Sciences / Research / Quality of Experience / Video Quality Research / Standards / Objective Models / Hidden: General Model

NTIA General Model (aka VQM) and Full Reference Calibration Standards

The ITS "General" video quality model was standardized by ANSI and included in the two ITU Recommendations:

ITU-T Recommendation J.144

"Objective perceptual video quality measurement techniques for digital cable television in the presence of a full reference."

ITU-R Recommendation BT.1683

"Objective perceptual video quality measurement techniques for standard definition digital broadcast television in the presence of a full reference."

ANSI T1.801.03-1996, 2003

"American National Standard for Telecommunications - Digital Transport of One-Way Video Signals - Parameters for Objective Performance Assessment." This 1996 standard was revised as ANSI T1.801.03-2003.

This US standard defines a whole new framework of objective parameters that can be used to measure the quality of digital video systems. For a tutorial of the original ANSI T1.801.03-1996 video quality metrics and their application for measuring compressed digital video impairments, see our ANSI Video Quality Tutorial. In 2002, a "General" ITS-developed video quality metric (VQM) was prepared and submitted to the ITU Video Quality Experts Group (VQEG) for independent testing and verification. Of all the international VQM proponent submissions, the ITS VQM submission was the only VQM that was in the top performing group for both the 525-line and 625-line video tests. For the U.S. standard 525-line video test, the ITS VQM achieved a correlation coefficient to the subjective data of almost 95%, near the theoretical limit. These test results are even more remarkable because the ITS VQM submission was a "reduced-reference" measurement system whereas the other proponents submitted "full-reference" measurement systems. The ITS VQM submission only requires approximately 1/20 of the reference data to make a measurement. As a result of these international achievements in 2003, the ITS VQM was standardized by ANSI in July 2003 (ANSI T1.801.03-2003), which replaced the original ANSI T1.801.03-1996. ITU-T Study Group 9 and ITU-R Working Party 6Q have also included the ITS VQM in their Recommendations (see the International Standards section given below). To assist companies and potential licensees in the deployment and use of the patented ITS VQM technology, evaluation software that implements the above national and international standards has been posted on the ITS web site.
 
For copies of this standard, contact the American National Standards Institute (ANSI).

These algorithms are availble for free in the ITS VQM software.