Surfmeter Media Toolkit

Every layer of a video file, analyzed in one pass.

The tool for encoding and broadcast engineers. Get bitstream statistics, pixel metrics and quality scores for any video file, and compare encodes against their source.

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Surfmeter Media Toolkit terminal UI showing bitrate, QP, blockiness, blurriness and noise over time for a transport stream

Product Overview

Dig deep into streams

Checking an encode usually means running several tools and merging their results by hand. The Media Toolkit does it in one pass and shows every result on one timeline, frame by frame. It builds on AVEQ’s video quality research and the most accurate video quality models, including standardized solutions.

Key Features

What it does

Bitstream Statistics

QP, frame types, frame sizes and motion per frame. See how the encoder spends its bits to optimize encodings.

ITU-T P.1204.3 Quality Score

The standardized quality model that can be as accurate as VMAF, per second and for the whole file. No reference needed.

No-Reference Pixel Metrics

Blockiness, blur, noise, freezes, black frames, jerkiness and more, without a reference.

Full-Reference Comparison

VMAF, PSNR and SSIM against the source, with automatic frame alignment.

Interactive Terminal UI

Browse results in the terminal, locally or over SSH, and view several runs side by side.

Open Output Formats

NDJSON, JSON and CSV output for your own scripts and pipelines.

Terminal UI with timelines of bitrate, QP and pixel metrics, with I-frames marked

Analyze

See the whole file on one timeline

QP, frame sizes and frame types, pixel metrics, VMAF, and the P.1204.3 score, aligned frame by frame. Zoom into a scene change or a quality drop and see what the encoder did at that moment.

Terminal UI showing the VMAF score of an H.264 encode against its reference over time

Compare

Encodes side by side against their source

Pass a reference and any number of encodes. The toolkit finds any offset between them, computes VMAF, PSNR and SSIM per frame, and shows which encode loses quality where. Change to the per-file view for detailed metrics and deltas.

Terminal UI metric picker listing bitstream, pixel, full-reference and model metrics

Pixel metrics

Artifacts you can see, measured

Find blockiness after a bitrate drop, freezes and black frames in a recording, or jerky motion after a frame rate conversion, without a reference. Pick the metrics you need from the bitstream, pixel and quality layers.

Diagram of a transport stream with one program and its video, audio and SCTE-35 PIDs

Probe

Know what is in the file

We output programs, PIDs and streams of MPEG-2 transport streams, including the PIDs with SCTE-35 markers, plus codecs, resolution, frame rate and duration of any stream.

Ready to see it in action?

Get a personalized demo and see how Surfmeter fits your use case.

How It Works

From download to results in 4 steps

Currently available for Linux and Docker, amd64 and arm64. Windows, macOS, and a graphical interface are on our roadmap.

1

Install

Unpack the archive on Linux or pull the Docker image.

2

Register

Register once with your license key from AVEQ.

3

Analyze or compare

Analyze single files, or compare encodes against a reference. As many as you want.

4

Explore and export

Explore results in the terminal UI, or export them for your own tools as JSON/CSV.

Data & KPIs

Supported formats and metrics

MP4 / MOV Matroska / WebM AVI Raw bitstreams H.264 HEVC VP9 AV1 MPEG-TS MPEG-PS MPEG-2

Quality Scores

P.1204.3 MOS

Bitstream-based quality score (1–5) per second, per GOP and overall
VMAF

Netflix perceptual quality metric (0–100)
PSNR

Peak signal-to-noise ratio in dB
SSIM

Structural similarity (0–1)

Stream & Bitstream

Stream Information

Codecs, resolution, frame rate, duration
Programs & PIDs

Transport stream programs, PIDs and SCTE-35 PIDs
Quantization Parameters (QP)

Compression strength per frame
Frame Types & Sizes

I, P and B frames and their size in bytes
Motion Statistics

Motion vectors per frame
Decoder Errors

Bitstream errors found while decoding
Frame Alignment

Offset and dropped frames against the reference

Pixel Metrics

Blockiness

Visible compression blocks
Blurriness

Loss of sharpness
Noise

Grain and noise in the picture
Freezes & Black Frames

Frozen pictures and black screens
Jerkiness

Uneven motion between frames
Spatial & Temporal Information

SI and TI content complexity
Scene Changes

Cuts between shots

Use Cases

Who it's for

Codec Migration

Moving from H.264 or HEVC? Compare the old and new encode frame by frame.

Encoder Evaluation

Compare encoders, settings and bitrate ladders, and back your decision with numbers.

Quality Gates in CI

Check every new encode or transcoder release in Docker and catch regressions early.

Troubleshooting & Research

Find out why a file looks bad, or export per-frame data for your own research.

Proven in Practice

Encoding quality verification for a German TV provider

A German TV content provider needed to verify the quality of transcoded streams across multiple bitrate ladder profiles and encoders, to ensure that the chosen encoder settings delivered actual quality improvements.

Results

Performed automated quality analysis using ITU-T Rec. P.1204.3 bitstrem model
Verified encoding performance improvement for commercial encoder vs. open-source solution