videoQC is a suite of video and audio analysis and playback tools with both visual and automated quality checking tools. videoQC will take the media coming into your facility and perform a series of automated tests on video, audio and metadata values against a template, then analyze the audio and video. It includes metadata extraction, comparison and templating tools, intuitive charting of audio and video metrics, a full set of audio and video waveform/vectorscope/phase tools, db and PDF reporting, file to file visual comparison, and clipping and exporting tools. videoQC's automated server components can run headless (no interface) for analysis tools. Integration with Net-X-Code suite provides quality control for IP based workflows. Each level of videoQC is designed to fill a particular level of the Quality Control workflow, from intern to master QC operators and even back end servers. The standard database format allows seamless and instant sharing of analysis results. Hot folders allow automation, optimizing those in the QC workflow.
3D viewing including interlace, side by side, anaglyph
For a full list of comparison types, see the Compare tab below.
Main Interface and Displays
Real Time Playback with optional SDI/HDMI
videoQC is a full fledged player, capable of playing back almost any post production or broadcast file. Play files in the GUI with the computer's audio, or to SDI/HDMI via AJA, Bluefish444 or Blackmagic hardware. During playback, time code is displayed in real time, along with audio meters in RMS or EBU r.128 levels. Frame accurate seeking, by time code or absolute position, along with stepping, off speed play and forward/reverse play are all available via keyboard, mouse or external controller. Looping, palindrome and audio- or video- only playback are also available.
Zoom, Pan and Full Screen
Zoom and pan the video in pause or playback mode. Using the scroll wheel of the mouse, the image can be zoomed out to cover a wider part of the screen, or zoomed in to closely check individual pixels. Left clicking and dragging will move the image to view different parts while zoomed in. Clicking the right mouse button will fill the application with video, and clicking the middle button will set the image to pixel for pixel (where every image pixel is exactly one screen pixel). Zoom is available in windowed or full screen mode. Changing the video background color is also available using <CTRL><SHIFT>-mouse wheel.
Time Code Display
A dedicated time code field not only displays the current time code location, but allows the user to enter a known time code location within a selected clip, and press Enter to cue that frame. In Full Screen mode, an optional time code display may be overlaid. The user may select between available time code sources by clicking on the time code source field. Copy and pasting of time code is also available by using -c and -v
Closed Captioning
videoQC supports 608/708 Closed Captions. The closed caption information will be displayed over the video frame when enabled. Supported sources include SMPTE 436, CEA-708, OP-47/RDD-08, CEA-608, MCC, AAF, SCC, STL, EBU, embedded and many other formats. See the Closed Caption section below for more details.
Please note: The CC feature is only available when running under a temporary or permanent license. Please contact Drastic for a license if you want to test this feature.
File Trim And Export
videoQC supports trimming the current clip, or clip list, and exporting it to standard file formats including:
The export also allows for the closed captioning or audio files to be replaced during the creation of the new file.
Track Info
All versions of videoQC show basic track info on the main display, and provide a more detailed track info pop up. The track info includes the video parameters (width, height, bit depth, codec), the audio parameters (channels, bit size, frequency) and the basic metadata information (names, device names, aspect ratio, length, camera settings). For the more advanced versions, a separate comparison metadata window is available, and is described under the Analysis tab.
Audio Routing
videoQC has a full 16 by 16 audio routing panel (available in most versions). This allows audio signals to be routed or joined from any channel in the file to any channel on the output.
QC
videoQC includes two main areas of automated analysis: Metadata and Metric.
The metadata analysis analyzes the incoming file, and determines as many qualities as it can about it. This includes, but is not limited to, file container, channel type and number, frame rate, video height/width/codec/bit depth/aspect ratio/compression/color matrix, audio frequency/bit size/codec/channels/type, and embedded metadata like source/copyright/description/source device/camera settings/reel/take/scene/source/slate/comments. Any of these may be used to create a template to compare incoming files against. One or more templates may exist on a videoQC system, and they can be exported/imported and shared. As well as a go/no go return on this comparison, a visual table will highlight any differences between the file and the expected settings, for easy operator identification.
videoQC can also generate a full set of video metrics. These are stored in a SQLite database, so that other applications can access them, and do frame by frame checks including:
Video size, and frame type (I, P or B)
Luma, Chroma, Hue, Saturation Min, Max, High, Low, Average
Vertical line repetition
Broadcast legal
Optional PSNR or MS-SSIM charting when pre-compressed source is available
Audio loudness and RMS
The metric analysis can be manually or automatically started.
Scopes
videoQC Pro (and above) features a full set of scopes. They can be viewed as a single large scope, or up to 6 scopes at one time (a second monitor is recommended). The following scopes are provided:
Vectorscope - Color accurate graticules automatically switch between SD (601), HD (709) and 4K/QHD (709 or 2020) color spaces. The markers include color points (for standard bar checks) at 75% and 100% saturation. All the standard points are boxed; red, magenta, blue, cyan, green and yellow. A skin tone/flesh line is provided to allow for easy hue adjustment as well as standard diagonals.
Waveform YCbCr - Displays the levels of the Y, Cb and Cr from the left of the picture to the right of the picture with all the lines summed into one graph. The Y, or luma/luminance, graph provides accurate white and black level information, as well as the range in between. The luma waveform supports standard, HDR10 (Dolby Vision /ST.2084) and HLG (Hybrid Log Gamma) display up to 10,000 nits.
Waveform Luma/NIT Light Level - Displays the overall intensity of the picture. Standard 601/709 levels are supported, as well as NITs display for HDR/ST 2084 and HLG signals.
Waveform YCbCr Parade - Displays the levels of the Y, Cb and Cr from the left of the picture to the right of the picture with all the lines summed into one graph. The Y, or luma/luminance, graph provides accurate white and black level information, as well as the range in between.
Waveform RGB - The RGB Waveform Monitor shows each of the red, green and blue signals as independent graphs, displaying the RGB, or chrominance/color values associated with the signal. Above is the stacked waveform, a parade waveform is also available.
Waveform RGB Parade - The RGB Waveform Monitor shows each of the red, green and blue signals as independent graphs, displaying the RGB, or chrominance/color values associated with the signal. Above is the parade waveform, a stacked waveform is also available.
CIE XY Gamut - The CIE XY Gamut, or chromaticity, scope provides a visual representation of the color in a video across all the colors of visible light. For a particular YCbCr range (BT.2020, P3, Rec.709, CCIR-601) a triangle can be superimposed to show the colors that fall within the acceptable range and those that are outside it. The color of the video within the CIE 1931 color display can be white, black, or the chromaticity hued background.
Histogram - The Histogram shows the distribution of red, green and blue within the signal as a series of discrete bars that make a continuous graph for each color. This display provides an overview of the tonal range of each color in the picture. Each bar is the count of the number of pixels for one of the 256/1024/4096 possible colors.
Histogram YCbCr - This histogram breaks up the signal in into luma and chroma components. The top histogram represents the luma power of the various levels in the signal. The Cb and Cr histograms that follow show the power distribution for those two components. A separate RGB histogram display is also available.
H/S Scope - The H/S Scope allows easy calibaration of lighting or camera to a standard DSC ChromaDumonde chart. The target color level or saturation is calibrated to a single horizontal line in the chart. The color hue component is mapped horizontally, with standard 601, 709 or 2020 targets as vertical lines.
Data View - The Data view allows access to the raw pixel values being monitored on the HDMI or SDI input. Raw values are captured and displayed with no manipulation by the software. This mode is perfect for checking vertical blank signalling and metadata, as well as picture issues like inner line sync markers or out of range colors. Pixel starts can be selected, along with lines, in the edit boxes above the data area.
Status - The Status view presents real time data on the overall signal in terms of gamut, maximum and minimum chroma and luma, audio levels and MaxFALL/MaxCLL for HDR signals. Any issues detected by the status panel are automatically entered in the log file and window with time, type, source and reason.
Audio Phase - The audio phase meter shows the relative density of two audio channels and the relative loudness as a line moving towards the louder channel.
Audio Vector Polar - The audio phase meter shows the relative density of two audio channels and the relative loudness as a line moving towards the louder channel.
Audio Vector Lissajous - The audio phase meter shows the relative density of two audio channels and the relative loudness as a line moving towards the louder channel.
Audio Vector Lissajous XY - The audio phase meter shows the relative density of two audio channels and the relative loudness as a line moving towards the louder channel.
Audio Histogram Linear - The audio histogram displays a bar chart of the levels of the components of an audio signal.
Audio Histogram Linear Reverse Log - The audio histogram displays a bar chart of the levels of the components of an audio signal.
Audio Histogram Log - The audio histogram displays a bar chart of the levels of the components of an audio signal.
Waveform - The waveform displays the selected pair's audio as a standard wave.
Picture
Luma - Show only the Y or brightness of the picture
Red - Show only the red channel
Green - Show only the green channel
Blue - Show only the blue channel
Zebra Luma - Draw zebra bars where the luma is too high or too low
Zebra Chroma - Draw zebra bars where the chroma is out of range
Clipping - Draw green anywhere the signal is too high or too low
Edge Difference - Highlight every edge in the picture
Focus Assist - Show areas of the image that are in focus
Flip/Flop - Flip the picture horizontally or vertically
False Color - Show each exposure level as a color
Luma Key - Show the video luma keyed over a checkerboard or image
Green Screen - Show the image green screen keyed over a checkerboard
Green Screen Despill - Show the image green screen keyed with edge despilling over a checkerboard
Compare
videoQC also supports visual QC of compressed files, either against other compressed files or uncompressed original files. Over 40 different modes are supported, along with inverting, flipping, grid and full zoom/pan modifiers.
videoQC supports a wide range of embedded/internal closed caption formats as well as external closed caption formats and subtitle formats. If any of these caption types are found in the same directory as the main file, with the same file name, they will automatically be loaded and displayed.
Embedded Caption Formats
MXF SMPTE 436 and Avid embedded
CEA 608, CEA 708, OP-47/RDD-08
MPEG-2, h.264, MPEG-4, AVC1 user space
TS/MTS CC in separate PID
GXF SMPTE 360
LXF Leitch/Harris
MOV CC Tracks
External Broadcast Caption Formats
SCC Scenarist SD Captions
MCC MacCaption Format 708 Captions
AAF Avid Format 708 Captions
STL EBU Broadcast Captions
Subtitle Caption Formats
Avid Caption - txt
Belle Nuit - stp
Comma Separated - csv
Digital Cinema 2007/2010 - xml
EBU Sub Titles - stl
Final Cut Pro - xml
Final Cut Pro X - xml
Flash - xml
iTunes Timed Text - txt
JSON (various) - json
QuickTime Text - txt
SAMI - smi
SoftNI - sub
Sony DVD Architect - sub
Sony DVD - txt
SubRip - srt
Sub Station Alpha - ssa
Swift - sif
Timed Text - dxfp, ttml, xml
WebVVT - vvt
YouTube Annotations - xml
YouTube - sbv
YouTube Transcript - txt
Videos
90 Seconds With videoQC
videoQC Full Reference Tutorial
Versions
The following levels are available:
videoQC Workstation - Full on QC Database view/export, Generate QC data/events, with player, SDI I/O, scopes
videoQC Pro - SDI output plus real time scopes, with player
videoQC View - A player designed for front end, visual confirmation
And for the enterprise, videoQC Server - A back end server for automated QC with unlimited analysis (includes two separate videoQC licenses) plus player, SDI I/O, scopes.
Feature Comparison chart between videoQC versions
View
Pro
Inspect
Workstation
Server
Player/View, most standard broadcast and post production files
SDI HDMI output with AJA, Bluefish444 or Blackmagic card
X
X
X
1
Full set of audio and video scopes
X
X
X
1
Hex/decimal pixel display
X
X
X
1
File clipping and export
X
X
X
Audio routing
X
X
X
Automated metadata comparison to template
X
X
X
Video and audio metric charting
X
X
X
RS-422 serial control as a VTR
X
X
X
Export of results to PDF
X
X
X
Export of results to CSV, SQLite, and HTML
X
X
Automated video and audio metric generation
X
X
HTTP remote control and monitoring
X
1
Single ended analysis of metadata and audio/video
X
X
Full Reference Analysis - PSNR, SSIM, MS-SSIM
X
X
Full Reference Comparisons - original to source
X
X
HTTP job submission and results
X
Sentinel watch folder analysis and movement
X
Multi file simultaneous analysis
X
1. Using one of the included videoQC licenses
SDK/API
SDK and APIs
videoQC Server can be run remotely, by script or using watch folders. videoQC also supports copy/cut/paste, keyboard/mouse and a full RESTful HTTP API. There is more information available on these control systems available here:
and a sample web page that uses the REST API is included in the installer:
The analysis results are output as a standard SQLite database, PDF and application return.
videoQC on a workstation can be loaded by command line/script, controlled by video keyboard or remote control, and cut/paste time code and can save uncompressed images as well as JPG grabs of the video. The workstation version also supports the REST API.
videoQC is also based on two Drastic APIs that are available to third party developers:
DrasticPreview SDK - A full preview engine from reading the file to playing out to audio devices, memory planes or OpenGL surfaces. More information is available here.
DTMediaRead SDK - Integrate all the file types we read into your own application. Read uncompressed audio and compressed or uncompressed YCbCr 10, YCbCr 10, RGBA or RGB 10 frames. More information is available here.
MacOS 10.13 to 10.15 (Mohave). Optional latest BlueFish444 (5.13.x), Blackmagic (11.x) or AJA drivers (15.2)
When you first start videoQC, you will start a license dialog that will create and download a temporary license so that you can test all of the features of the program. Select the "Get Fully Functional Temp License" option. You will then enter your name and email address. The program will then ask you to check your email for the generated license key. Copy this key to the videoQC dialog that you just left, click the "register" button and restart videoQC. The whole process should not take more than a minute. Note: you must be connected to the internet for this licensing to occur. If you have any problems please email us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
