VisualOn and Cires21 release whitepaper on video quality improvements in transcoding

VisualOn and Cires21 released a joint whitepaper at NAB Show 2026 demonstrating measurable improvements in video quality of experience achieved by integrating the VisualOn Optimizer into Cires21’s live transcoding pipeline.

The VisualOn Optimizer is an AI-enhanced content adaptive encoding solution designed to improve video quality while managing bandwidth and infrastructure costs. The whitepaper, titled “Enhancing Video Quality in Transcoding Pipelines: A Comparative VMAF Analysis,” benchmarks the performance of H.264, HEVC, and AV1 codecs across software and hardware platforms including NVIDIA NVENC, NETINT, and Intel QuickSync.

The study uses VMAF, a perceptual video quality metric developed by Netflix, to evaluate codec performance. Results indicate that the VisualOn Optimizer consistently improves video quality, particularly at lower resolutions and bitrates, which are critical for mobile viewing.

Key findings include:

• NVIDIA’s NVENC pipeline showed VMAF score improvements of 7 to 15 points, reaching scores above 90.
• For NETINT and Intel hardware, the Optimizer increased VMAF scores by 15 to 19 points at lower resolutions between 360p and 576p.
• Software encoding for AVC and HEVC was enhanced, approaching theoretical maximum quality for 720p and 1080p streams.

Juan Casal, chief of research and development at Cires21, said the whitepaper demonstrates the Optimizer’s ability to improve quality across all major hardware platforms and codecs, especially at lower bitrates.

VisualOn and Cires21 are discussing these results and their integration at NAB 2026. Attendees can visit Cires21 at booth W2713.

The whitepaper is available for download on the VisualOn website.