PQA600C and PQASW Picture Quality Analyzer
Release Notes

This document supports software versions 4.1.7 and 3.9.7.

077-1140-00


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Contacting Tektronix

Tektronix, Inc.
14150 SW Karl Braun Drive
P.O. Box 500
Beaverton, OR 97077
USA

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call 1-800-833-9200. Worldwide, visit www.tektronix.com to find contacts in your area.


This document supports software versions 4.1.7 (64-bit) and 3.9.7 (32-bit) of the
PQA software, which can be installed on the following products:

- PQA600C Picture Quality Analyzer
- PQA600B Picture Quality Analyzer
- PQA600A Picture Quality Analyzer
- PQA600 Picture Quality Analyzer
- PQA500 Picture Quality Analyzer
- PQASW Picture Quality Analyzer


About installing the 64-bit and 32-bit versions of the PQA application software

- There are two versions of the PQA application software available in this release:

- 64-bit (v4.1.X). If you have a PQA600C, PQA600B, PQA600A, or PQA600 analyzer,
use the 64-bit installation files to install version 4.1.X of the PQA software
on your instrument.

- 32-bit (v3.9.X). If you have a PQA500 analyzer, use the 32-bit installation
files to install version 3.9.X of the PQA software on your instrument.

If you have a PQASW analyzer, which version of the PQA installation files you
will use depends on which version of the Window OS is installed on your PC
(64-bit or 32-bit). It is recommended that you install the PQASW software on a
64-bit PC since the 64-bit version of the PQA software includes more features
and has better
performance.


About invoking the PQA application on a PQA600C, PQA600B, PQA600A, or PC with
Windows 7

- When you invoke the PQA application on a PQA600C, PQA600B, PQA600A, or PC
running Windows 7, if UAC is enabled, Windows displays a User Account Control
dialog box that asks "Do you want to allow the following program from an
unknown publisher to make changes to this computer?" The Program name is
displayed as PQUI.exe. Answer Yes to the dialog box. This dialog box is a
feature of Windows 7 and is a normal response by the operating system.

Clicking No to this dialog may result in the application being unable to save
results/custom measures on the machine.

To change UAC prompt settings, go to Control Panel > System and Security >
Action Center > Change User Account Control Settings. After changing the UAC
setting, restart the system for the updated setting to take effect.


New video format support

- Software versions 4.1.7 (64-bit) and 3.9.7 (32-bit) of the PQA software add
support for YCbCr 4:2:0 10-bit planar video formats. The YCbCr 4:2:0 10-bit
format is supported only for .yuv files created by MTS4EA which are encoded
with one of the "two byte LSB/MSB first" options.


New Run As Administrator icon and scripts

- When PQA version 4.1.X/3.9.X is installed, the following new "Run As
Administrator" icon and scripts are available:

- PQA RunAsAdministrator icon: The shortcut icon launches the PQA software
and appears on the desktop.

- PQxmlRunAsAdmin.vbs script: This script launches the PQxml utility and is
installed in the PQA installation folder.

- TekConverterRunAsAdmin.vbs script: This script launches the TekConverter
utility and is installed in the PQA installation folder.

The new Run As Administrator functionality allows you to run the PQA software
or scripts using the standard user login (with no administrator privileges)
without being prompted to enter the Administrator's password each time the PQA software or utilities are run from a standard user account.

Using the Run As Administrator icon and scripts.

- To use the Run As Administrator icon and scripts, you need to perform the
following steps:

1. Make sure that the Secondary Logon service is running.

2. Log into the Administrator account one time by double-clicking the icon
and entering the password.

3.Double-click the desired Run As Administrator icon or script.

After the initial Administrator login, the Run As Administrator icon and scripts
can be used from any user account without being prompted to enter the
Administrator password. After the initial time you run each of these items, you
will need to reenter the password only if the Administrator password is changed.


Known issues and behaviors

- The PQA software V4.1.X/V3.9.X installer may ask you to accept the installation
of the DESkey driver. You should always accept the installation even if the
driver is already installed on the PC.

- Port specific IP capture does not work for multicast streams. You can use the
following workarounds:

- Use the "Inspect All" option and select a stream.

- Use the "IGMP On" option to show only the filtered streams from a specified
multicast address.

- The maximum file size that can be captured using IP capture mode is 200 MB. If
the PQA is left in recording mode for an input stream that exceeds this data
limit, only the last 200 MB will be saved to a file when the user presses the
Stop button.

- The Contrast and Brightness settings in the Display Settings dialog box
(Configure > Display Settings) might not operate correctly in the Overlay View.

- When reviewing the results of display measures calculated using different frame
rates, original images are displayed rather than up-sampled interpolations. This
can cause the results map to appear temporally advanced, or delayed by up to
half a frame when compared to the lower frame rate sequence.

- In the Overlay View, video sequences with different resolutions are not
spatially aligned.

- The Standalone Attention Model uses the Reference sequence for dual-ended
measurements and the Test sequence for single-ended measurements.

- If the reference and test sequences have different resolutions and the
measurement contains the Artifact Detection node but does not contain the
View Model node, the system might become unstable. To avoid this situation,
Tektronix suggests that when a measurement includes the Artifact Detection node,
you ensure that the measurement also includes the View Model node whenever the
reference and test sequences have different resolutions.

- The vertical and horizontal resolution for .rgb and .yuv files must be multiples
of 4.

- If the reference or test file has a "," (comma) character in its file name, the
system might become unstable when the measurement result is recalled in review
mode. To avoid this, do not use commas in file names.

- PQA600C, PQA600B, PQA600A, and PQA600: When two channels are selected for
signal generation, sometimes the output frames might be misaligned by one frame
between the two channels due to a systemarchitectural limitation. If this occurs,
restart the generation to realign the two channels.

- PQA600C, PQA600B, and PQA600A: Always use Channel 1 to capture or generate
Level B 3G-SDI signals. To capture or generate Level B 3G-SDI signals, first
set Channel 2 to "Generate to Output SDI" without entering a file name, and then
select Channel 1 for SDI capture/generate. Do not use any capture setting in
Channel 2 while you are generating or capturing Level B 3G-SDI signals.

- PQA600C, PQA600B, and PQA600A: Even though the combinations listed below are
possible using the UI, these groupings do not fit into the simultaneous capture
and generate functionality, since each interface type (SDI or HDMI) has only one
input port and only one output port.

- Capture from the SDI input on Channel 1 and capture from the SDI input on
Channel 2.

- Generate to the SDI output on Channel 1 and generate to the SDI output on
Channel 2.

- Capture from the HDMI input on Channel 1 and capture from the HDMI input on
Channel 2.

- Generate to the HDMI output on Channel 1 and generate to the HDMI output on
Channel 2.

- PQA600C, PQA600B, and PQA600A: When the generation and capture functions are
enabled simultaneously, the first and the last frames may be repeated in the
captured file. In this case, before you start a measurement, you need to make
sure that the captured file is temporally aligned to the other file being used
in the measurement.

- PQA600C, PQA600B, and PQA600A: The HDMI input will accept HDCP encrypted video
signals from a HDMI capable transmitter. However, the HDMI input may not work
with a source device using a DVI transmitter.


Reviewing PQA V3.X measurement result (.csv) files using PQA V4.X

- If you want to use PQA software V4.X to view a measurement result (.csv) file
created by PQA software V3.X, you need to first manually edit the Output
Temporal ROI start and end frame values in the V3.X results file as follows:

- If the "Start Frame" in "Output Temporal ROI" is greater than zero, increase
the value of the "Start Frame" by 1.

- If you adjust the "Start Frame" by 1, then also increase the value of the
"End Frame" in "Output Temporal ROI" by 1.

If you do not manually adjust the start and end frame values when viewing
measurement results using software 4.X that were created by software V3.X, the
Output ROI will be wrong by 1 frame.


SWAP action restriction

- When you press the SWAP button in the SGAC window with one generate channel
using RGB file format and the other generate channel using YUV file format,
a couple of black frames may be seen each time you press the SWAP button.


Decoding .3gp streams

- Decoding .3gp stream files may result in the created YUV file having the
wrong frame rate. If you know the frame rate of the .3gp file, you can work
around this problem by selecting the correct frame rate using the Format
button.


Simultaneous Generation and Capture

- The HD-SDI simultaneous generation and capture capability consumes substantial
CPU resources and requires sustained high-speed hard disk activity. To avoid
missing frames while capturing video or frozen frames while generating video,
avoid running other applications when using the simultaneous generation and
capture capability.

- When you simultaneously play an uncompressed video file and capture a video
stream using the SDI or HDMI input, the video stream input to the PQA600C,
PQA600B or PQA600A must be locked to the video signal output from the PQA600C,
PQA600B or PQA600A. Otherwise, the captured file may contain freeze or skip
frames.

- In the Simultaneous Generation and Capture window, you may need to manually
set the "Clock Selection" setting to "SDI input" to see a proper image of SDI
signals in the preview area.

- In the Simultaneous Generation and Capture window of the PQA600C, PQA600B,
PQA600A, and PQA600 with Option VID, the "External Reference" setting in the
"Clock Selection" drop-down list has no effect and is ignored by the PQA software.

On PQA600 instruments with Option SDI, the "External Reference" setting is
fully functional.


About full reference measurements with interlaced video content

- Interlaced video content can be measured accurately only when the Reference
and Test video both have interlaced video content and spatial alignment is
not needed to be set differently from the default scale and shift.


About spatial and temporal alignment

- Automatic spatial and temporal alignment work by calculating the correlation
between the reference video sequence and the test video sequence. Video that
is still, contains little movement, or consists of simple contents (such as a color bar test pattern signal), can be difficult to align automatically.

If you receive a warning when you attempt an automatic temporal or spatial
alignment, try the automatic alignment again starting with another frame that
contains more complex contents and movement. You can change the starting frame by changing the From frame setting on the Temporal Sync tab.

Auto temporal alignment only finds one offset for a pair of sequences. If the
test sequence contains frozen or skipped frames, the automatic temporal
alignment algorithm will not be able to realign the sequences.

Auto alignment can not be selected for Luma Gain and Offset Brightness on the
Spatial Alignment tab. However, you can manually set the Luma Gain and Offset
Brightness on the Spatial Alignment tab and those settings will be used by the
selected measurement. If you want the PQA to align the video sequences for
luma automatically, you must select Auto for Luma Gain and Offset Brightness
in the View Model configuration node.


About viewing HDCP content on a PC monitor connected to the DVI or Display port
on a PQA600C, PQA600B or PQA600A

- When the PQA application is running, if the PC monitor is disconnected and
reconnected, or if the monitor goes into Sleep mode and back, the PQA
application may no longer recognize the monitor as being HDCP capable even if it is compliant with HDCP. In this case, click the "Enable HDCP" button to
bring back the preview of the HDCP content.


About how to enable HDCP encrypted content reception on a PQA600C, PQA600B or
PQA600A

- Use the following steps to enable HDCP authentication on a PQA600C, PQA600B
or PQA600A:

1. Connect the HDMI cable from the source unit to HDMI input on the PQA600C,
PQA600B or PQA600A.

2. Launch the PQA application and click the Generate/Capture button.

3. Configure Channel 1 to "Capture from Input HDMI" and then click the
"Autoset" button.

4. Click and hold the "Enable HDCP" button until the HDCP content is shown
in the preview pane, and then release the mouse button. The preview will
show the video only when the content is detected as "HDCP Content".


About the logical hard disk drive setting on a PQA600C, PQA600B or PQA600A

- The PQA600C, PQA600B and PQA600A have two virtual drives (C and D) and one
optical drive (E). Drive C is used for the OS. Drive D is optimized for
performance and can be used for data storage. Drive D is configured as
RAID 0, which provides no data redundancy. Therefore, for recovery purposes,
the user should back up all data residing on the PQA600C, PQA600B or PQA600A.


About the logical hard disk drive setting on a PQA600

- The PQA600 has three virtual drives: C, E, and F. Drives E and F are
optimized for performance. Data can be stored on any of the drives. All
drives are configured as RAID 0 (including the C drive). None of the drives provide data redundancy, therefore, for recovery purposes, the user should
back up all data residing on the PQA600.