QC Test Reference

MPEG-2 Video Codec Syntax

SC-101

For MPEG-2 streams, section 8.5 (Table 8-13) defines upper limits for bit rate, in Mbps, for each combination of Profile and Level.

For MPEG-2 streams, section 8.5 (Table 8-14) of ISO/IEC 13818-2 defines the vbv_buffer size requirements (in bits) for each combination of Profile and Level.

AVC/H.264/MPEG-4 Video Codec Syntax

SC-102

Tests that the sequence should always start with an IDR picture as per ITU-T H.264. Sequences that start with a non-IDR picture can cause playability problems, including tearing, stuttering and freeze frames.

Tests that bitstreams do not cause an underflow or overflow in the hypothetical reference decoder (HDR), as per ITU-T H.264, Annex C.

Tests that PPS referenced in the headers exist in the file as per ITU-T H.264.

Tests that bitstreams do not cause coded picture buffer (CPB) removal timing violations in the hypothetical reference decoder as per ITU-T H.264, Annex C.

Transport Stream Syntax

SC-104

Checks the Transport Stream Syntax and includes these tests:

• Reserved PID in use
• Continuity Counter for afc 00 or 10
• Continuity Counter Check
• Splice Parameters
• Container Stream Descriptor Doesn't Match Codec
• System Clock Audio Sample Rate Ratio is Wrong
• System Clock Frame Rate Ratio is Wrong
• Loss of Sync
• Adaptation field length is incorrect
• Random access test failure
• Program Map Table Non-Existent Stream
• Transport Error Indicator bit found
• PCR Accuracy Check
• Random access PES start test failure
• PES header test failure
• PAT test failure
• PMT test failure
• General descriptor test failure
• Video stream descriptor test failure
• Audio stream descriptor test failure
• Stream does not start within 700ms of PMT start

MP4 HEVC Nal Unit

SC-106

The test checks for the inconsistent carriage of NAL unit structured video in MP4 format files. An alert will be generated when a byte stream format is found in the MP4 file i.e. when NAL unit start code prefix is found in place of the size of the NAL unit.

Dolby-E Audio Codec Syntax

SC-108

CRC Check: Checks the CRC of each Dolby-E frame. Frames that fail the CRC check are likely corrupted either in transport or in the decoder.

Guard Band Alignment: Checks Dolby-E guard band start position against the values from Table 4-2 of the Dolby-E specifications.

Guard Band Not In Ideal Position: Checks for a Dolby-E frame that is not in the ideal position in reference Table 4-2 of the Dolby-E specifications.

Frame Rate Coherency: Checks for a Dolby-E stream where the frame rate does not match with the container metadata frame rate.

Frame Synchronization: Checks for a frame without a synchronization header in the Dolby-E stream.

Closed Caption Presence

CC-101

Checks for the presence or absence of closed captions (C608, C708).

Closed Caption Dropouts

CC-102

Detect and report any closed caption dropouts. Maximum time allowed with no caption data can be specified in seconds or frames.

Teletext Subtitle Presence

CC-103

Checks for the presence of specified teletext pages.

Discreet Subtitle Presence

CC-104

Checks for the presence or absence of discrete subtitles.

Discreet Subtitle Dropouts

CC-105

Detect and report any discrete subtitle dropouts. Maximum time allowed with no subtitle data can be specified in seconds or frames. The following STL checks are also available within this test:

• STL Checks: enable/disable STL checks.
• Check that Sidecar STL is present: test that an STL that matches the content is present.
• STL Group: verify the STL Group (for example: service 01 or 00). Only one group can be tested for.
• STL start timecode check: check that the start timecode of the STL matches the start timecode of the media.

CGMS-A Value

CC-106

Test the CGMS-A value from the CEA-608 caption data packet.

CGMS-A is defined in CEA-608-E, section 9.5.1.8 in the Type 0x08 copy and redistribution control packet. This is a 2 byte packet and CGMS-A resides in b4 & b3 of the first byte.

B4 - B3 - CGMS-A Meaning
0 - 0 - Copying permitted without restriction
0 - 1 - No more copies (one generation copy has already been made)
1 - 0 - One generation of copies can be made
1 - 1 - No copying is permitted

Caption Word Detection

CC-107

Check captions for the presence of words from a specified list.

Service Count

CC-111

Check the number of services in the file. This test can check for any type of service or specifically for CEA-608 or CEA-708 services.

Caption Paint Style

CC-116

Checks the caption paint style used in selected channels and services. There are three standard caption transitions that can be used for video: pop-on, roll-up and paint-on.

STL Checks

CC-121

The following STL checks are available within this test:

• STL Checks: enable/disable STL checks.
• Check that Sidecar STL is present: test that an STL that matches the content is present.
• STL Group: verify the STL Group (for example: service 01 or 00). Only one group can be tested for.
• STL start timecode check: check that the start timecode of the STL matches the start timecode of the media.

Bit Depth

VM-101

The number of bits per video sample. For cases where luma and chroma sample depths are different, this check will test the luma bit depth.

Video Track ID/PID

VM-102

Checks the ID of the video track within its container format. This is the 'PID' for MPEG-2 Transport Streams, the 'stream_id' for MPEG-2 Program Streams and the 'Track ID' for MOV and MXF files.

Video Bit Rate

VM-103

Check that the bit rate of the video track is within the given range, expressed in Mbit/s.

Video Bit Rate Mode

VM-104

Checks whether the bit rate mode of the video is variable (VBR) or constant (CBR).

Codec

VM-105

Tests the format of the video elementary stream.

Color Space Information

VM-106

This tests that the video has certain color space properties (e.g. color primaries, transfer characteristics and matrix coefficients). If a property is not found in the video, a Warning will be generated

Frame Rate

VM-107

Frame rate in video frames per second. "NTSC" denotes a drop frame rate, e.g. "30fps (NTSC)" corresponds to 29.97fps.

Drop Frame

VM-108

Specify whether the file must have drop/non-drop frame timecode.

Frame Size

VM-109

Choose from a selection of standard frame sizes, or specify a Custom frame size (e.g. 2000x1000).

Frame Aspect Ratio

VM-111

Choose from a selection of standard frame aspect ratios, or specify a custom value as an integer or floating point value (e.g. 3 or 1.4).

Pixel Aspect Ratio

VM-112

The aspect ratio of each luminance sample in the coded stream, either as coded directly or implied by the display aspect ratio and frame size.

Pixel To Frame Aspect Ratio Comparison

VM-113

This test checks for possible anamorphic video in a 4:3 frame. This will most easily be determined by showing rectangular pixels in a 4:3 frame, indicating that the pixels should be stretched during playback to achieve the standard square aspect ratio.

Chroma Subsampling Format

VM-114

Checks that the chroma subsampling format matches the user specified value. Only applicable for YUV-based video.

Clean Aperture

VM-115

Checks that the Clean Aperture of the video is equal to the Production Aperture. This implies that no cropping of the encoded picture is indicated by the container. This test also verifies that no Clean Aperture offset is indicated. Clean Aperture is a QuickTime concept, thus this test will only be performed on MOV containers.

GOP Length

VM-116

Check the distance between successive I-frames in the encoded video. For example, this distance will be 1 for I-frame only video and 12 for a long GOP sequence coded as 'IBBPBBPBBPBBI'. This test is suitable for GOP coded video, such as MPEG-2 and H.264.

Advanced GOP Length

VM-117

A more thorough GOP test for MPEG-2 and H.264 that can test for a range of GOP lengths, test for open and closed GOPs (MPEG-2 only), and allow special handling of first and last GOPs. The "First GOP" and "Last 2 GOPs" sections, when ticked, enable specific values to be given for the first and last two GOPs. The "Other GOPs" section will apply to any other GOP (possibly including the first and last GOPs if their specific sections are not ticked). The input boxes for I-frame distance and P-frame distance are comma-separated lists of distances or ranges of distances. For example, "12", "1-12", "1,12,15' and "1,12-15" are all valid inputs. The syntax ">5" and "<5" mean "greater than" and "less than" 5 frames, respectively. If the input is empty, then no check is performed (i.e., any distance is valid). It is possible to choose whether the test operates on the coded frame order or the displayed frame order. This distinction is only important when B-frames are present. The test can be configured to either show unique GOP length errors (default) or to show all of them.

Video Reference Frames

VM-118

Checks the maximum number of short-term and long-term reference frames, complementary reference field pairs, and non-paired reference fields that may be used by the decoding process for inter-prediction of any picture in the coded video sequence. This test is applicable for AVC and HEVC video codec.

Dolby Vision Validation

VM-121

Verifies compliance of input file with Dolby Vision metadata.

TV/MPAA Rating

VM-123

Checks the Type 0x05 Content Advisory Packet from the caption data packet in the video stream and compares the results to the value you set in the template.

AFD Detection (Dynamic)

VM-124

Tests the value of the Active Format Description (AFD) as sent in the User Data of an MPEG-2 video sequence.

Video Buffer Size

VM-125

When MPEG-2 is selected, this test checks the VBV buffer size reported in the stream. When AVC/H.264 is selected, this test checks the CPB buffer size reported in the stream. Minimum and Maximum values are specified in KiB (1024 bytes) and either value may be left blank if not required. The 'Video Codec' test must be enabled and set to 'MPEG-2' or 'AVC/H.264' before this test may be used.

MOOV Atom

VM-127

This check is to identify that there is only one MOOV atom in an mov/mp4 file.

Single Sample Description

VM-128

This test looks for the presence of multiple Sample Descriptions in the MOV/MP4 track metadata, which is often an indicator that such incompatible splicing has taken place.

Video Essence Duration

VM-130

Test if the essence is shorter/longer than specified value/range.

Is PAL or NTSC

VM-131

This checks if PAL/NTSC video is present.
NTSC Broadcast Format: NTSC Standard: 525 total lines, 480 displayed lines. 29.97 frames/second (59.97 fields/sec). Interlaced video only.
PAL Broadcast Format: PAL Standard: 625 total lines, 576 displayed lines. 25 frames/second (50 fields/sec). Interlaced video only.

Black Frame

VQ-101

Checks for instances of both intentional/unintentional black frames, using a luma level specified in the template (default value varies with different video bit depths). The Percentage of Frame option acts as a tolerance control, and the user can set the maximum number of consecutive black frames that are allowed before an alert is raised. This test also has the ability to check certain parts of the file using the "Layout" controls.

Color Bars

VQ-102

Checks for instances of both intentional/unintentional color bars. The user can specify which type of color bars to search for, and set a tolerance to account for non-standard encoding. This test also has the ability to check certain parts of the file using the "Layout" controls and by enabling the details option the test will provide information on why a frame is not a colorbar.

Field Order

VQ-103

Tests whether the encoded flag matches the user specified input, and optionally tests that the baseband video also has the desired encoded field order. The user can specify a time threshold to ensure relevant alerts are caught.

Cadence

VQ-104

Checks that the baseband cadence is correct based on the user selected criteria of what is expected in the stream. The user can select from the following expected cadences:

• Progressive
• 2:2 (TFF) Top field first interlaced
• 2:2 (BFF) Bottom field first interlaced
• 2:3 (TFF) 2:3 cadence mix of progressive and top field first (Prog/Prog/TFF/TFF/Prog)
• 2:3 (BFF) 2:3 cadence mix of progressive and bottom field first(Prog/Prog/BFF/BFF/Prog)
• 24 -> 25 fps (TFF) Mix of progressive and top field first used in conversion from 24 fps to 25 fps (12 progressive frames then one TFF)
• 24 -> 25 fps (BFF) Mix of progressive and bottom field first used in conversion from 24 fps to 25 fps (12 progressive frames then one BFF).

Freeze Frame

VQ-105

Checks for instances of both intentional/unintentional freeze frames. The user can specify the maximum number of allowed consecutive frozen frames before an alert is raised. There is also the ability to ignore black frames, using a user specified luma level (default value varies with different bit depths). This test also has the ability to check certain parts of the file using the "Layout" controls.

HDR Area

VQ-106

This test measures the number of HDR pixels in a PQ or HLG-1000 graded frame. As per ITU-R B.2408-1 recommendations, a pixel with luminance more than 203 nits is considered HDR. An alert is generated when the percentage of HDR pixels in a frame exceeds the Area Threshold and when this continues for the user specified number of measurements.

HDR Limit

VQ-108

This test measures how many HDR pixels lie above the brightest two thresholds, and how many lie below the darkest, giving the user a reliable and useful metric as to how much their content lies within "HDR" boundaries.

HDR Measurement

VQ-109

This test measures analyses each decoded frame, in its native bit depth, to calculate the MaxCLL (Maximum Content Light Level) and MaxFALL (Maximum Frame Average Light Level). The measured values are compared against the HDR metadata within the file. PQ and HLG formats are supported as is Dolby Vision.

HDR Change Detection

VQ-110

Checks for changes to the SEI-encoded HDR metadata on a frame-by-frame basis. Any changes to this metadata cause an alert to be raised.

Luma/Chroma Levels

VQ-112

This tests that the luma component (Y) of the YUB signal is within valid limits. The Low Luma Limit and High Luma Limit fields allow for stricter or more lenient rules for when a pixel is considered a violation. The defaults of -1% to 103% comply with EBU r103.

RGB Gamut

VQ-113

This test ensures that the YUV components of the decoded video lie within the legal range given by ITU-R- BT.601-5, 709-5 or 2020-1. The default values of -5% to 105% comply with EBU r103.

Media Offline

VQ-114

Checks for the presence of the "Media Offline" slate, which can be produced by applications such as Adobe Premiere, After Effects, Avid Media Composer or DaVinci Resolve.

PSE Test (Proprietary)

VQ-115

Tests for rapid changes in luminance which could trigger photosensitive epilepsy (PSE). This test is in accordance with ITU-R BT 1702-2 (supporting both SDR and HDR content) but can be switched to be run in accordance with ITU-R BT 1702-1 by choosing "Use Legacy". The test will alert if a sequence has more than three and a half harmful flashed per second. Harmful flashes could be caused by both rapid changes of lighting in a scene, or by rapid editorial cuts that cause the screen to flash.

Video Segment Detection

VQ-116

Detects video segments within the content and reports the start and end timecode of each segment found. This test works by identifying consecutive black frames, and assuming that anything which is not black is an active video segment. The user can request that digital silence is also present during black sections to ensure accuracy of detection.

Single Color Frame

VQ-117

Detects sequences where the entire frame is a single color. This can sometimes occur because of syntax errors, missing codecs, or erroneous media encoding.

TMOS

VQ-118

TMOS is a non-referenced perceptual video quality measurement for natural video content. The content is rated on a scale of 0-5, with 5 being the highest quality, in line with the ITU 5-point scale. The Program Threshold computes the percentage of frames within the entire program that fall below the user defined threshold. The short-term threshold searches and reports for short sections of poor video quality, according to a user specified rolling window duration.

Letterbox/Pillarbox

VQ-120

This test is used to detect whether video content has the correct letterboxing (black bars at the top and bottom of the frame). If any content fails the test, then a single error alert is raised for each continuous frame sequence. Changes to letterboxing/pillarboxing are also reported. The user can specify the desired active picture aspect ratio, or a requirement for a specific number of black lines at the edges of the picture. A tolerance can also be set to mitigate false positive alerts, and the black level used to detect the black bars can also be adjusted.

Black Line Detection

VQ-121

This test checks for black lines in the frame that exceed the percentage specified in the template. This value is a percentage of the frame width and by default is 10%. The black level values can be also set for various bit depths.

Black lines can be introduced by tape ingest processes (generally from VTR head RF dropouts). Additionally, they can be caused by PAL/NTSC conversion process or an interlace/de-interlace routine, where a line is partially wrapped from one field to the next.

Loss of Chroma

VQ-122

Detects any video frame where there is no color. This is done by checking the values of U and V: If both of these are at the defined level for no chroma to within the given tolerance then an alert is raised. Frames consisting entirely of a uniform color value (e.g. all black, or all white) will not be considered as part of a "lost chroma" sequence. This is to prevent false alerts on sections of filler material. Tolerance ± %: The tolerance to allow on the default value, rounded down to the nearest integer. E.g. a tolerance of 1% would be 1.28: this is rounded down to 1 so the Loss of Chroma test alert would then be triggered when U and V are both 127 to 129.

Analogue Dropout

VQ-123

Check for isolated bright or dark lines of pixels caused by analogue tape transfer errors. Sensitivity: A High sensitivity will find more problems but could also find more 'false positives'. A Low sensitivity will only detect more obvious dropouts. Note that not all dropouts may be detected - in particular larger problems may be ignored.

Chroma Block Dropouts

VQ-124

Check for chroma block dropout artifacts caused by digital tape transfer errors.

Luma Block Dropouts

VQ-125

Check for luma block dropout artifacts caused by digital tape transfer errors.

Speckle Dropouts

VQ-126

Check for speckle dropout artifacts caused by digital tape transfer errors.

Repeated Tile Dropouts

VQ-127

Check for repeated tile dropout artifacts caused by digital tape transfer errors.

Upconversion Detection

VQ-128

Performs two passes on the key frames for each video stream in the container to determine if they have been upconverted from a lower resolution. A comparison is then made between the original frame to the frame that has passed through the two pass conversion.

Stripe Errors

VQ-130

Check for 'stripe' artifacts caused by tape transfer errors. This test looks for groups of lines which are offset horizontally from their correct positions, which can happen due to mechanical problems when transferring analog video from tape. Note that some horizontal patterns could be misidentified as stripe artifacts. Sensitivity: A High sensitivity will find more problems but could also find more 'false positives'. A Low sensitivity will only detect more obvious stripe problems.

Macroblocking

VQ-131

Checks for macroblocking artifacts where the macroblock edge is clearly visible. This test is a subjective measure of video quality where each frame is assigned a quality metric and an alert is raised if the video quality drops below the given threshold.

Corrupt Frame

VQ-133

Checks for corrupt or unexpected frames. Single or double frames which look out of place in a sequence will be found. These could be frames with a significant amount of corruption, or single dark or bright frames could also cause an alert to be raised. Sensitivity: A high sensitivity will find more problems but could also find more 'false positives'. A low sensitivity will only detect more obvious problems.

Dead Pixel

VQ-134

Test for the presence of dead pixels.

HardingFPA

VQ-135

Tests for rapid changes in luminance which could trigger photosensitive epilepsy (PSE). This test is in accordance with ITU-R BT 1702-2 (supporting SDR, HDR and Dolby Vision content). When the color space of the file can not be determined from the metadata, the user can optionally specify the color space to use.

Combing Artifacts

VQ-136

Checks for interlacing artifacts which manifest by showing a shift in every other line around motion areas of pictures. These are generally caused by the fields being out of order during ingest, and then being transcoded to a format that loses any reference to the proper field order.

Bit Depth

AM-101

Verifies that the audio bit depth matches the user specified value.

Codec

AM-102

Checks that the audio codec matches the user specified value(s).

Codec Profile

AM-103

Tests the format of the audio elementary stream.

Sample Rate

AM-104

Ensures that the audio sample rate (KHz) matches the user specified value.

Bit Rate

AM-106

Ensures that the audio bit rate (kbps) matches the user specified value.

Dialnorm

AM-107

Verifies that the Dialnorm value matches the user specified range. This test is only relevant to assets containing a Dolby encoded audio stream.

Audio Channel Count Detection

AM-109

Checks for instances of the ACMod metadata parameter (if present) or channel count changing between audio frames.

Number of Channels

AM-110

Checks that the number of audio channels found matches the user specified range.

Language ID

AM-111

Checks that the language ID found matches the user specified value. The user can optionally test the input audio baseband to verify that the spoken word is the same as the expected language or the same as the metadata.

AC-3 Service Type

AM-112

This test checks for AC-3 Service Type/Service Kind for AC-3 (and E-AC-3) of the audio bitstream against the user specified value.

It corresponds to the 'bsmod' (Bit Stream Mode) parameter per the AC-3 specification (ATSC A/52);

Service Types:
Complete Main, Music and Effects, Visually Impaired, Hearing Imparied, Dialogue, Commentary, Emergency, Voice Over, Karaoke

Audio Essence Duration

AM-115

Test if the essence is shorter/longer than specified value/range.

Peak Level

AQ-101

Measures the Peak audio level throughout the program material, and will alert if it is in violation of the user specified value. The user can choose whether to measure as dBFS or dBTP.

Phase Coherence

AQ-102

Measures the phase coherence between channel pairs. Phase is measured on a scale of -1 to 1, where -1 means "completely out of phase" and 1 means "completely in phase/mono".

Dual Mono

AQ-103

Compares two audio streams and will alert if dual mono sections are detected between them.
Max Allowed Duration units can be samples, milliseconds, seconds or percentage, where a dual mono section lasting less than this time window will be ignored.

Clicks and Pops

AQ-104

Detects transients or sudden changes in amplitude, such as those caused by noise on a digital or analog signal. The user can choose between low, medium or high sensitivity; high sensitivity is more likely to generate false positive results, but may also detect smaller transients which are deemed erroneous.

Clipping

AQ-105

Detects audio clipping by testing for successive samples of equal value. Quiet samples (those below a fixed small value) are supressed and do not count towards the clipping test.

Integrated Loudness (inc Dialog Gating)

AQ-106

Integrated Loudness is measured over the duration of the file. In calculating the loudness, the arrangement of channels is assumed as found in the Audio Layout settings. Dialog gating can be applied to ITU 1770-1, which will measure loudness only when dialog is present. ITU 1770-2, 1770-3, and 1770-4 options do not currently support dialog gating.

Short-term Loudness

AQ-107

Short-term Loudness is measured over a sliding rectangular time window. The measurement is not gated. The default window length of 3 seconds corresponds to EBU-Tech 3341 short-term mode. The Max Violations setting will report only the worst violation, in accordance with EBU-Tech 3341/EBU r128. The All Violations setting will report all violations.

Momentary Loudness

AQ-108

Momentary Loudness is measured over a 400ms sliding rectangular time window as per EBU-Tech 3341 Momentary mode. The measurement is not gated. The Max Violations setting will report only the worst violation, in accordance with EBU-Tech 3341/EBU r128. The All Violations setting will report all violations.

Loudness Range (LUFS)

AQ-109

Loudness Range is a measurement of the variation in loudness over the duration of a file. The algorithm is specified in EBU-Tech 3342 and produces an output Loudness Range (LRA) in terms of Loudness Units (LU).

Minimum Level

AQ-110

Measures the audio RMS level per channel using a sliding window of the user specified length. If the RMS level for a given channel drops below this level for a contiguous period equal to or longer than the window length, an alert will be raised. Due to the nature of the windowing function, if the period is longer than the window length, only the minimum measurement during the period will be given.

Silence

AQ-111

Detects both intentional and unintentional Silence. The threshold indicates the threshold below which an audio track is considered silent. If Digital Silence is selected, instead of using the threshold, the track is checked for the presence of absence of audio samples.

PPM Level

AQ-112

The peak level according to the "BBC Peak Program Meter" (IEC 60268-10 Type IIa) standard. The meter can operate in MS (sum/difference) mode (modes M3 and M6), or AB mode (individual channels). Note that in MS mode, only the sum is measured.

• Min Level: Min: The minimum acceptable PPM level.
• Max: The maximum acceptable PPM level.
• Mode: M3 and M6 modes determine how much attenuation is made after summing the left and right signals.

Channel Position

AQ-113

Checks whether 5.1 channels are in the correct place by using known frequencies to analyze the baseband of the center and LFE channel and validating against what should be present.

Test Tone

AQ-114

Checks for the presence of a sine wave tone (a "test tone"), on each channel. Level is in dBFS peak-to-peak. If levels are supplied in RMS, approximately 3dB should be added; for example a -9dBFS RMS signal will measure -6dBFS peak-to-peak.

EAS Tone

AQ-115

Checks for the presence of an EAS (Emergency Alert System) tone.

Audio Hiss Detection

AQ-117

The Verification Unit applies a low pass filter to the frequency transform of the audio track and determines if tape hiss noise is present. By default, the verification unit is checking for hiss noise across the entire time domain above 15,000 Hz.

Audio Hum Detection

AQ-118

The Verification Unit applies a high pass filter to the frequency domain of the audio waveform to determine if 50 Hz or 60 Hz hum (mono tone frequency) is present (+/- 1 Hz) anywhere within the clip.

Wow and Flutter

AQ-119

Check if Wow or Flutter is present. Wow is slow, gradual variations in timing or speed and flutter is faster, higher-frequency variations in timing or speed. These are determined by finding a mono frequency tone present in the audio waveform and by analysing audio frequency variations along the average pitch variation curve (PVC).

Audio Description Track Detection

AQ-120

Checks for an audio description channel on a given mix. User should specify the expected audio description and control channels. In advanced settings, the user can adjust the frequency and amplitude of the control channel as well as their tolerances. The test reports the audio description / control pair (if any) and alerts when it is not found where expected.

Channel Mapping

AQ-121

Checks the channel mapping of the given mix against an expected channel mapping. For reference, see the List Of Channel Labels.

Comparative Loudness

AQ-123

Detect mismatch in program loudness across multiple audio tracks. Loudness tolerance, mode standard and dialog gating parameters are available

Dolby Atmos Loudness

AQ-124

Checks that the measured integrated loudness does not exceed the specified maximum value. A value for tolerance can be included. Additionally checks that the measured True Peak loudness does not exceed the specified maxium value.

IMF Conformance

DC-101

Check for IMF conformance. This test can perform basic consistency checking of IMF assets and check package list asset hashes.

Netflix Photon

DC-102

This test, when performed on an IMF Asset Map file, will validate IMF packages using Netflix Photon.

Nielsen Watermark Detection

DC-103

Decode an audio stream and report Nielsen watermarks found in the stream.

• NAES 2: Detects and reports N2 watermarks.
• NAES 6: Detects and reports Nielsen Watermark TAM** Codes (NW) and Nielsen Watermark Commercial Codes (NWCC).

iTunes Compliance

DC-107

Tests several aspects of MOV file atom structure which are relevant for iTunes submission:

• The video track should have a sample description atom of type 'apch'.
• The video width and height in the video sample description atom should be either 1920×1080 or 1280×720.
• The 'vendor' code should be 'appl'.
• The 'fields' entry should be set to 1 to indicate progressive scan.
• The 'colr' atom should be present and have the type 'nclc' to indicate non-constant luminance coding.
• The color primaries, color transfer function and color matrix should all be set to 1.
• No clean aperture (clap) information should occur after a field (fiel) atom.
• The edit list (elst atom) for the video track should be exactly 1 entry in size.

CableLabs VOD Conformance

DC-108

This test checks for the following CableLabs VOD Constraints with respect to the Transport Stream, inline with CableLabs VOD specification.

• Stream count
• Packet size
• PID restrictions
• PCR restrictions
• PSI constraints
• PES constraints
• Allowed Audio Codecs
• Video Frame size
• First GOP Closed
• SCTE 35 Registration Descriptor
• Transport Stream first byte restriction
• Transport Stream discontinuity restriction
• No Scalable Extensions for CableLabs VOD
• First byte of audio not first byte of audio access unit