Feb 16 2010

Digital Camera Video Quality

When transferring and processing stored material from a camcorder disk to a computer, users often worry about the digital video quality. Even if chances of deterioration are lower with digital materials, there were cases when digital video quality was impaired during these operations. Some applications even require an evaluation of the digital video quality.

According to expert criteria, you can evaluate the digital video quality by analyzing different sequences from the database. From this perspective, the performance of a certain system depends on the dynamic features of the input video signal, which includes the spatial and the amount of motion in the video. Thus, by working with mathematical models, you can determine digital video quality with a certain degree of approximation. When such data is introduced in a computer program, it can then be measured and reported objectively.

Among the traditional ways of determining digital video quality we can mention the peak signal-to-noise ratio or the simple signal-to-noise ratio; both methods are objective and they are relevant and useful for multimedia purposes. Sometimes several other tests are necessary before the digital video quality for compression-decompression can be determined. The average consumer will never perform such time consuming tests; they are only used by professionals and strictly for specific tasks.

As for subjective digital video quality this is actually the viewer’s opinion on a video that has passed through processing. Normally, a trained expert should judge the parameters, yet it is common practice to take a group of experiments and show them several video sequences. The evaluation is performed per sequence and the reactions and opinions are recorded for analysis. Regardless of the evaluation method, quality digital video camera is always superior to analog videos. And the quality is all the more relevant for larger visuals than for smaller ones.