In video coding research, the standalone implementation and testing of video codecs often involves the use of raw YUV streams. Since these streams can be parsed and generated by very simple means, raw YUV files are very common in video codec standardization and development.

This little utility provides YUV playback, comparison and conversion capabilities on MacOS X. It has grown in the last years to my requirements in analyzing the output of my codec work.

Among the highlights of this program is the auto-detection of common formats. The correlation based auto-detection for sequences in planar YCbCr4:2:0 and YCbCr4:2:2 formats covers typical resolutions like QCIF, CIF, 720p and 1080p. When working with less common input formats, the auto-detection can be disabled in the open dialog.

Since version 0.9, there is a raw export option available to save the input sequences in different RAW formats, resolutions and color depths. The algorithm for scaled output uses a high quality 64 tap windowed sinc filter (sinc windowed sinc aka Lanczos filter). Another change in v0.9 is the inclusion of multiple input formats, either 8 or 10 Bit in 4:2:0 and 4:2:2 subsampling.

Furthermore, RAW sequences can be converted to any movie format supported by Quicktime (e.g. for use in presentations).

Comparison options include visual side by side display of two sequences, optionally with frame difference visualization. Objective comparison functions include PSNR calculation (Y,U,V, mean) and SSIM calculation (various methods).