Video Multimethod Assessment Fusion (VMAF) on 360VR Contents

This paper describes the process carried out to validate the application of one of the most robust and influential video quality metrics, Video Multimethod Assessment Fusion (VMAF), to 360VR contents. VMAF is a full reference metric initially designed to work with traditional 2D contents. Hence, at first, it cannot be assumed to be compatible with the particularities of the scenario where omnidirectional content is visualized using commercial head-mounted displays (HMDs). In this article, we prove that this metric can be successfully used to measure the quality of 360VR sequences without any specific training or adjustments, which evidences its usefulness and flexibility, and entails significant time and resource savings. Thus, it can be straightforwardly included in consumer appliances, namely content generators, servers and clients, as part of the embedded software or hardware as a reliable means to monitor the quality of the 360VR content consumed by users.