Improved p-domain rate control and perceived quality optimizations for MPEG-4 real-time video applications

ABSTRACT

The paper describes bit rate control for a one-pass MPEG-4 video encoding algorithm in order to make it suitable for real-time applications. The proposed control method is of low computational complexity and more accurate than previous approaches. In result, the rate-control buffer size which highly influences the latency between a video sender and receiver can be decreased significantly. Additionally, a solution is proposed for increasing the perceived quality by introducing an advanced bit allocation scheme and by exploiting activity masking. The proposed algorithm has been implemented in the XVID codec, a representative of the MPEG-4 standard. Experiments prove that the proposed algorithm is highly accurate and provides improved perceived visual quality. Moreover, the implementation outperforms other up-to-now bit rate control algorithms.

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.4 INFORMATION SYSTEMS APPLICATIONS
      H.4.3 Communications Applications
          Subjects: Computer conferencing, teleconferencing, and videoconferencing

Additional Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)
      H.5.1 Multimedia Information Systems
          Subjects: Video (e.g., tape, disk, DVI); Evaluation/methodology

General Terms:
Algorithms, Design, Experimentation, Measurement, Performance, Verification

Keywords:
"MPEG-4", "bit rate control", "live streaming", "p-domain", "quality optimization", "real-time", "video encoding"