There is an urgent industry need for documentation of video quality metrics (VQM). To meet that need T1A1 has developed a series of Technical Reports specifying accuracy and cross-calibration of video quality metrics (T1.TR.72-2001), normalization algorithms useful in implementing Full Reference (FR) methods (T1.TR.73-2001), and VQM algorithms that are suitable for application in design, manufacturing, installation and servicing of video transmission systems incorporating compression techniques. Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR) is defined in T1.TR.74-2001. A Just-Noticeable Difference (JND) based VQM utilizing the FR technique is defined in T1.TR.75-2001. T1.TR.77-2002 defines data and sample program code to be used with the methods specified in T1.TR.74-2001 and T1.TR.75-2001. This Technical Report is the framework document (T1.TR.72-2003).