SSIMPLUS is a commercial perceptual quality metric, originally from SSIMWAVE and now part of IMAX, designed to estimate quality the way a viewer would perceive it across different devices - the cross-device angle is its distinguishing claim, predicting how the same encode looks on screens from a phone to a large television. It belongs to the family of file-based QC suites: products that bundle perceptual scoring with hundreds of broadcast conformance checks (right codec, right loudness, no black frames, valid captions), a graphical interface, dashboards, and a support contract, aimed at delivery workflows and non-engineer operators. The catch, common to this whole family, is that you are not paying for better math but for the wrapper, the scale, and the support; and SSIMPLUS reports its own proprietary score that is not VMAF, so it cannot be read on the same ruler. Open-source FFmpeg with libvmaf computes a free perceptual number; a suite is worth buying when compliance, live monitoring, or an operator makes the wrapper worth it.
The handbook · 7 volumes
Fora Soft Video Engineering Handbook
SSIMPLUS is a commercial metric sold inside QC suites, so the choice is usually about buying a suite versus building your own measurement. Our seven-volume handbook covers the video stack; for SSIMPLUS and similar perceptual metrics start with Volume 1 on VMAF, SSIM and full-reference measurement, then Volume 3 for QoE monitoring. Written by Nikolay Sapunov, CEO at Fora Soft.
Weighing SSIMPLUS in a commercial QC suite against open metrics?
We will compare SSIMPLUS-based suites with an open VMAF setup for your workflow and estimate cost and coverage of each. 250+ video products shipped since 2005.
