Same source,
every trial.

Encode one source with SVT-AV1, VVenC, ProRes, AV2, NVENC or FFV1 and keep every trial in a single project. Each trial remembers its own parameters and its seven quality scores, so switching between them restores everything in one click. Compare codecs on the same frame, not from memory.

Every edge,
pixel by pixel.

Four trapezoid panels zoom the four borders of the frame up to ×32 to inspect individual pixels at each edge. Chunk, average or peak views reveal what hides at the edges; black bar detection and aspect presets handle the rest. Output size, SAR, DAR and PAR follow every change live.

Choose a scaler
by what it does.

Seventeen scaling methods from swscale, zimg and libplacebo, including EWA Lanczos, Robidoux and neural shaders. The comparison covers sharpness, ringing, texture, aliasing, gradient, speed and isotropy where measured. Neural methods have a speed score; the other criteria remain unscored. A pixel-exact preview shows the output from ×2 to ×32. Compare the results on your own footage.

See the gamut
as it really is.

Primaries, transfer, matrix, chroma siting and mastering display metadata, next to CIE 1931 and 1976 diagrams and a saturation timeline. The interface itself renders in HDR: a PQ source is displayed as PQ, with a tunable peak in nits to match your screen, and a clean SDR fallback when there is none. What you grade is what the encoder gets.

Every nit,
accounted for.

A log-scale HDR waveform from 0.1 to 10,000 nits, with per-frame MaxCLL and MaxFALL and the P10–P90 luminance spread. Four ways to derive the metadata — raw, percentile (CTA-861), trimmed max or custom — with the reference lines drawn on the graph. Scene changes get their own graph, and a magnetic cursor lands right on them.

Every parameter,
one screen.

Rate control, GOP structure, reference frames, tiles, tuning — every encoder option is exposed, explained in a line, and guarded so invalid combinations can't be selected. Templates by display type, content type and quality target give a starting point; custom profiles keep yours. No command line to memorize, but the exact command stays one tab away.

Six codecs,
one workflow.

SVT-AV1, H.266/VVenC, AV2 with the AOM reference encoder, AV1 NVENC, ProRes and FFV1 in one workflow. Use the same source, crop and colorimetry, then compare the trials with the available quality analyses.

Seven ways
to measure quality.

VMAF, SSIM, PSNR and Y-PSNR, plus HDR-VDP-2, HDR-VDP-3 and ICtCp ΔE for HDR-aware analysis. Per-frame curves, a heatmap timeline, and a CUDA path for the FFT-heavy models. Click any dip in the graph to jump to that frame.

Your MKV
keeps the receipts.

Use the MKV metadata update to attach thumbnails, available per-frame quality scores, HDR statistics, encode parameters and Topaz metadata for later reading in Chromaster. Binary analysis files carry an integrity check against accidental corruption. HDR10+ and Dolby Vision metadata can be carried from compatible sources through AV1 NVENC.

Watch the silicon
work.

A live die map of your CPU — CCDs, cores, L3, per-core frequency and temperature — where a click assigns cores to the encoder. The GPU gets the same treatment, VRAM chips included. Affinity, thermals and clocks, without leaving the app.

One executable.
Zero framework.

Chromaster is a single native executable — pure C on DirectX, no Electron, no Python, no runtime to install. FFmpeg, SVT-AV1, MKVToolNix and the rest are fetched, verified and kept up to date automatically, with a Chromaster-built FFmpeg to keep the chain lean. A tool, not a stack.