HDRSDR-VQA: A Subjective Video Quality Dataset for HDR and SDR Comparative Evaluation

TL;DR

HDRSDR-VQA is a comprehensive dataset enabling direct comparison of HDR and SDR video quality, supporting research in perceptual quality assessment and content adaptation.

Contribution

It introduces a large-scale, publicly available dataset with paired HDR and SDR videos and subjective scores, facilitating detailed comparative analysis.

Findings

Over 22,000 pairwise comparisons collected

Supports analysis of HDR vs SDR preference

Enables development of perceptual quality models

Abstract

We introduce HDRSDR-VQA, a large-scale video quality assessment dataset designed to facilitate comparative analysis between High Dynamic Range (HDR) and Standard Dynamic Range (SDR) content under realistic viewing conditions. The dataset comprises 960 videos generated from 54 diverse source sequences, each presented in both HDR and SDR formats across nine distortion levels. To obtain reliable perceptual quality scores, we conducted a comprehensive subjective study involving 145 participants and six consumer-grade HDR-capable televisions. A total of over 22,000 pairwise comparisons were collected and scaled into Just-Objectionable-Difference (JOD) scores. Unlike prior datasets that focus on a single dynamic range format or use limited evaluation protocols, HDRSDR-VQA enables direct content-level comparison between HDR and SDR versions, supporting detailed investigations into when and why one format is preferred over the other. The open-sourced part of the dataset is publicly available to support further research in video quality assessment, content-adaptive streaming, and perceptual model development.