TECHNICAL
In the competitive landscape of video streaming, delivering pristine visual quality while managing bandwidth costs is paramount. This whitepaper analyses the impact of integrating VisualOn’s content-adaptive encoding Optimizer into the Cires21 video transcoding pipeline. By conducting a granular comparison of Video Multimethod Assessment Fusion (VMAF) scores across multiple codecs (H.264, HEVC, AVl) and hardware/software implementations, this study demonstrates how the Optimizer consistently elevates video quality. The results reveal significant VMAF improvements- particularly in lower-resolution rungs of Adaptive Bitrate (ABR) ladders-transforming the viewer experience across diverse playback environments.
Software encoders offer flexibility but often struggle to balance CPU load with quality. The integration of the Optimizer showed immediate gains across the ABR ladder, specially on the higher resolutions.
H.265/HEVC (Software)
The Optimizer delivered a consistent uplift, pushing the 1080p tier further into the “excellent” quality range (>90) and significantly salvaging quality at lower resolutions.
Resolution
VMAF (Standard)
VMAF (w/Optimizer)
Improvement
1080p
90.56 84.45 76.02 66.64 56.27
92.95 88.57 82.05 65.78 56.06
+2.89 +4.12
720p 540p 432p 360p
Key Results
+6.03 (1JND)
Neutral Neutral
01. The NVENC pipeline sees universal improvement, with VMAF gains of 6-15 points, pushing scores into the 90+ range.
02. For NETINT and Intel hardware, the Optimizer acts as a safety net for lower resolutions increasing VMAF scores by 15 to 29 points.
H.264/AVC (Software)
H.264 remains the most compatible codec globally. The Optimizer breathed new life into this legacy standard, achieving HEVC quality levels at 1080p.
03. VisualOn brings software encoding (AVC/HEVC) closer to the theoretical maximum quality
As Cires21 continues to lead in live streaming and encoding solutions, validating the efficacy of third-party integrations is critical. VisualOn’s Al-Enhanced and Award-Winning Optimizer technology claims to enhance encoding efficiency and visual fidelity through content-adaptive processing. To verify these claims, extensive tests were conducted comparing standard encoding pipelines against those augmented with VisualOn’s Optimizer. The metrics focus on VMAF, the industry- standard perceptual quality metric developed by Netflix, where a score of 100 is identical to the source, and a score difference of 6 points is generally considered a “Just Noticeable Difference”(JND) to the human eye.
Resolution
VMAF (Standard)
VMAF (w/Optimizer)
Improvement
1080p
86.49 81.92 73.64 64.62 54.51
93.04 88.79 80.48 63.24 52.99
+6.55 (>1 JND) +6.87 (>1 JND) +6.84 (>1 JND)
720p 540p 432p 360p
-1.38 -1.52
Volume 48 No.23 SEPTEMBER 2026
105
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