Request for input on the preparation of a subjective video quality comparative study

Hi there,

First of all THANK YOU for putting all the effort on developing Theora! and
all the other projects of xiph, of course.

I am planning to conduct together with my students a subjective video
quality comparative study of video codecs.

The plan is to ask our friends, family and others to participate so that
we will be looking towards a minimum of 100 participants.

The experiments are going to start sometime towards the beginning of November.
I suppose we will be able to use Theora 1.1 final by then, if not we will use
a build from SVN.

I would like to have your input on:

1. which codecs would you be interested in including in the study,
2. what encoding parameters should be used,
3. advise on source video material,
4. software that can be used for running the tests,
5. anything else you would like to give me input about.

If you want to include in the study alternative implementations or setups of
the theora encoder I will be able to include them.


The way I envision it is that we will distribute DVDs to the participants
which will include the test video clips and an executable that will provide
a GUI for going through the experimental procedure so that the participants
can run the test on their own computer setups. This will introduce an
uncontrolled variable but it will be nevertheless more realistic than
running all the experiments in one of our labs with the specific computer
setup that we happen to use for our purposes.

I would be happy to have your opinions, advice, views or anything else you
wish.


John