It is highly desirable for many broadcast video applications to be able to provide support for many diverse user devices, such as devices supporting different resolutions, without incurring the bitrate penalty of simulcast encoding. On the other hand, video decoding is a very complex operation, while the complexity is very dependent on the resolution of the coded video. Low power portable devices typically have very strict complexity restrictions and reduced-resolution displays. For such environments total bitrate efficiency of combined layers is an important requirement, but the bitrate efficiency of a lower layer individually, although desired, is not a requirement. In this paper, we propose a complexity constrained scalable system, based on the Reduced Resolution Update mode that enables low decoding complexity, while achieving better Rate-Distortion performance than an equivalent simulcast based system. Our system is targeted on broadcast environment with some terminals having very limited computational and power resources.
The new H.264 video coding standard supports picture and macroblock level adaptive frame/field coding, which can improve coding efficiency when coding interlaced sequences. A good design of an encoder needs to support all these modes and be able to decide which one is the most appropriate mode for encoding a macroblock or picture. It could be argued that the optimal solution can be found by employing a multi-pass strategy, that is to encode a macroblock or picture using all possible coding modes, and by selecting the one that yields the best coding performance. Unfortunately the computational complexity of such a multi-pass encoder is relatively high. In this paper, we propose a novel single-pass algorithm based on motion activity detection. The proposed scheme is performed in a pre-analysis stage and can reduce complexity by approximately 40%-60% compared to the two-pass frame/field encoder, while maintaining similar coding efficiency.
In this paper we introduce a new Inter Macroblock type within the H.264 (or MPEG-4 AVC) video coding standard that can further improve coding efficiency by exploiting the temporal correlation of motion within a sequence. This leads to a reduction in the bits required for encoding motion information, while retaining or even improving quality under a Rate Distortion Optimization Framework. An extension of this concept within the skip macroblock type of the same standard is also presented. Simulation results show that the proposed semantic changes can lead to up to 7.6% average bitrate reduction or equivalently 0.39dB quality improvement over the current H.264 standard.
In this paper, we introduce a new motion vector prediction method that could be used within multiple picture reference codecs, such as the H.264 (MPEG-4 AVC) video coding standard. Our method considers for each candidate motion vector the temporal distance of its corresponding reference picture compared to the current one for the generation of the predictor motion vector. This allows for more accurate motion vector prediction, and better exploitation of the temporal correlation that may exist within a video sequence. Furthermore, we also introduce a modification to the SKIP motion vector macroblock mode, according to which not only the motion vectors but also the reference indices are adaptively generated. Simulation results suggest that our proposed methods, combined with an improved Rate Distortion optimization strategy, if implemented within the existing H.264 codec, can allow for a considerable performance improvement of up to 8.6% bitrate reduction compared to the current H.264 standard.
Motion Estimation (ME) for video coding has taken an entirely different direction with the emergence of zonal algorithms. These algorithms made it possible to significantly reduce, if not almost eliminate, the tremendous computational overhead of motion estimation that was incurred in a video encoding system, while having little if any loss in quality. In this paper we further improve on these algorithms with the introduction of the Enhanced Predictive Zonal Search Algorithm (EPZS). By considering an additional set of predictors, improving the thresholding process, and simplifying the search pattern employed by these algorithms, we not only manage in achieving better output quality, but also reduce complexity of the motion estimation process even further. Our algorithm was compared with the algorithms accepted in the Optimization Model 1.0 of MPEG-4, and our simulations prove its outright superiority versus the existing algorithms. Furthermore we present a 3-Dimensional implementation of EPZS, which can be easily applied in the case of multiple frame motion estimation (ITU H.263++ and H.26L).
Motion Estimation (ME) is an important part of most video encoding systems, since it could significantly affect the output quality of an encoded sequence. Unfortunately this feature requires a significant part of the encoding time especially when using the straightforward Full Search (FS) algorithm. In this paper a new algorithm is presented named as the Predictive Motion Vector Field Adaptive Search Technique (PMVFAST), which significantly outperforms most if not all other previously proposed algorithms in terms of Speed Up performance. In addition, the output quality of the encoded sequence in terms of PSNR is similar to that of the Full Search algorithm. The proposed algorithm relies mainly upon very robust and reliable predictive techniques and early termination criteria, which make use of parameters adapted to the local characteristics of a frame. Our experiments verify the superiority of the proposed algorithm, not only versus several other well-known fast algorithms, but also in many cases versus even the Full Search algorithm.
This paper describes a new highly efficient deinterlacing approach based on motion estimation and compensation techniques. The proposed technique mainly benefits from the motion vector properties of zonal based algorithms, such as the Advanced Predictive Diamond Zonal Search (APDZS) and the Predictive Motion Vector Field Adaptive Search Technique (PMVFAST), multihypothesis motion compensation, but also an additional motion classification phase where, depending on the motion of a pixel, additional spatial and temporal information is also considered to further improve performance. Extensive simulations demonstrate the efficacy of these algorithms, especially when compared to standard deinterlacing techniques such as the line doubling and line averaging algorithms.
In this paper a new fast motion estimation algorithm is presented. The algorithm, named as Predictive Diamond Search, is actually based on the Diamond Search (DS) algorithm, which was recently adopted inside the MPEG-4 standard. The DS algorithm, even though faster than most known algorithms, was found not to be very robust in terms of quality for several sequences. By introducing a new predictive criterion and some additional steps in DS, our simulation results show that the proposed algorithm manages to have similar complexity with the DS algorithm, while having superior and more robust quality, similar to that of the Full Search algorithm.
In this paper, we presented a novel and effective optimization method to achieve better trade-off between rate and distortion. The optimization is done at the encoder side alone and is transparent to the decoder. That is the quantized DCT coefficient set it optimized with full syntax compliance and decoder compatibility. The proposed method determines both the positions and the retained values of quantized DCT coefficients according to the rate-distortion performance measured by the associating Lagrangian cost. Fast dynamic programming technique was developed to release the computation burden. All the experiments show that the proposed method consistently outperforms other existing optimization methods.
Block based motion estimation is widely used for exploiting temporal correlation within an image. Still the full search algorithm, which is considered to be the optimal, is computational intensive. In this paper a new fast motion estimation method for video coding, is presented. It will be shown that the new algorithm is not only much faster than traditional algorithms, but in some cases can achieve much better visual quality, even from the 'optimal' full search algorithm.
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