Video Quality Gate
The Video Quality Gate is the automatic pre-analysis check that evaluates a submitted clip's usability and blocks or warns before processing video that is too low-quality to produce reliable analysis.
The gate runs on-device before any upload or analysis begins. It checks frame rate, lighting, subject visibility, camera angle suitability, and clip length. If the gate determines the video is likely to produce a very low-confidence result, it explains the specific problem in plain English and suggests a fix. Instead of letting the analysis run and returning an unhelpfully vague result. The gate is an honesty mechanism: it sets a minimum quality bar and communicates it clearly.
Run the quality gate pre-check in the app before starting your practice session to confirm your recording setup is correct. This means this saves you from completing a full session only to find the video is unusable for analysis.
Use the quality gate score as a session setup checklist: frame rate, lighting, angle, and clip length each contribute to the score. Target a score above 80 before starting your practice session to maximize analysis reliability.
Example
A video recorded at 24 fps in dim indoor light triggers the quality gate with. This means 'Low frame rate and poor lighting detected. This means switch to 60 fps and move to a brighter location for reliable analysis.'
Why it matters
Processing a bad video wastes time and can produce confident-looking but meaningless results. The gate catches it early.
How it shows up on video
If the quality gate triggers, follow its specific plain-English suggestion before re-recording. The most common triggers are dim lighting (fix. This means move outdoors), low frame rate (fix. This means enable 60fps in camera settings), and poor camera angle (fix. This means move to the recommended position perpendicular to the swing plane).
Common mistakes
- Ignoring quality gate warnings and submitting anyway — a video that barely passes the gate often produces analysis with tracking failures at the most critical frames.
- Assuming passing the gate guarantees perfect analysis. This means the gate is a minimum quality bar. A video that passes with a score of 62 will produce by a lot less reliable results than one scoring 91.
- Not using the quality gate pre-check feature before a practice session. This means checking setup at the start of a session (not after recording) prevents wasting the session on unusable footage.
- Recording in a location where the gate passes for the first clip but lighting changes during the session (e.g.. This moves clouds). This means verify conditions are stable, not just good for the first check.
In SwingVantage Motion Lab
The quality gate runs before Motion Lab receives the video — it is a filter at the input side of the pipeline. A video that clears the gate will still show quality warnings in Motion Lab for specific frames that degraded mid-clip. Passing the gate does not guarantee consistent tracking throughout the entire video.
Related terms
- Video Quality ScoreA Video Quality Score is a pre-analysis rating (0–100) that tells you how usable a submitted clip is before pose estimation begins. This means catching bad angles, motion blur, or poor lighting early.
- Camera Angle QualityCamera angle quality describes how well the recording position allows the system to see the relevant joints and movement plane. This means the single biggest controllable factor in analysis accuracy.
- Frame RateFrame rate (frames per second, fps) is how many individual images your camera captures each second. This means higher frame rates freeze fast motion better and produce more reliable pose tracking.
- Lighting ConditionsLighting conditions describe how evenly and brightly the subject is illuminated. This means poor lighting is one of the top causes of low-quality video and degraded pose estimation.
- Phone Video LimitationsPhone video limitations are the practical constraints of recording on a smartphone. This means lens distortion, stabilization artifacts, variable frame rate, and compressed color depth. This means that can reduce analysis accuracy relative to purpose-built cameras.
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