They are the index values, which can be from 0 to 51, of the Quantizer matrix, that the encoder uses to determine the level of Quantization block size used to compensate for motion in the video during encoding.
The values are optimised to produce the best perceived image quality with respect to maintaining a manageable file size and retaining good motion compensation.
Thank you very much for taking the time to explain this to me.
So, for example, if you changed those values to 1-1-1, would that be best quality? And if you set it to 51-51-51 then it would be worst quality/best compression?
Also, are the 3 values for the 3 types of frames? i.e. I, P & B?