A video coding method is proposed to improve the video coding efficiency and to be favorable for designing efficient unequal loss protection schemes. Both the spatial and the temporal characteristics of video content are considered in the proposed method. Two parameters that embody the spatial and the temporal characteristics of video content are determined
respectively. Then
two weighting factors to reflect the spatial correlation or temporal correlation between the macroblock and its spatial or temporal neighboring macroblocks are determined
respectively. Finally
the macroblocks in one frame are arranged into the important and unimportant slice groups. Compared with the coding method without considering the content characteristics
the proposed method can improve the coding efficiency. Additionally
the important macroblocks are accurately distinguished
and hence more protection can be provided to these macroblocks in unequal loss protection schemes. Simulations show that the proposed method can improve the quality of the decoded video on average 0.22dB and 0.46dB while consuming the similar number of encoded bits. Moreover
under the condition that the two slice groups have the same size
the important slice group marked in the proposed method improves the reconstructed video quality on average by 1.52 dB and 1.20 dB.
SONG Bin, LI Zinuo, QIN Hao. Selective retransmission technology in video communications [J]. Journal of Xi'an Jiaotong University, 2009, 43(6): 82-87.
LI Peng, CHANG Yilin, FENG Nina, et al. Unequal error protection method for video transmission using adaptive hierarchical quadrature amplitude modulation [J]. Journal of Xi'an Jiaotong University, 2011, 45(4): 72-77.
HA H, PARK J, LEE S, et al. Perceptually unequal packet loss protection by weighting saliency and error propagation [J]. IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems for Video Technology, 2010, 20(9): 1187-1199.
Telecommunication Standardization Sector. ITU-T recommendation H.264 advanced video coding for generic audiovisual services [S]. Geneva, Switzerland: Telecommunication Standardization Sector, 2010.
LAMBERT P, NEVE W D, DHONDT Y, et al. Flexible macroblock ordering in H.264/AVC [J]. Journal of Visual Communication and Image Representation, 2006, 17(2): 358-375.
TAN K, PEARMAIN A. An improved FMO slice grouping method for error resilience in H.264/AVC [C]∥IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing. Piscataway, NJ, USA: IEEE, 2010: 1442-1445.
TAN K, PEARMAIN A. An FMO based error resilience method in H.264/AVC and its UEP application in DVB-H Link layer [C]∥IEEE International Conference on Multimedia and Expo Suntec. Piscataway, NJ, USA: IEEE, 2010: 214-219.
SONG Li, MA Xin. Improving flexible macroblock ordering of H.264/AVC [C]∥IEEE International Conference on Multimedia and Expo. Piscataway, NJ, USA: IEEE, 2009: 742-745.
YANG Fuzheng, Chang Yilin, WAN Shuai, et al. Fullreference video quality assessment method based on the distortion of image content [J]. Journal of Xidian University, 2005, 32(6): 869-872.
WU Dajun, PAN Feng, LIM K P, et al. Fast intermode decision in H.264/AVC video coding [J]. IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems for Video Technology, 2005, 15(6): 953-958.
WU Guanlin, CHEN Chingyi, WU Tunghsing, et al. Efficient spatial-temporal error concealment algorithm and hardware architecture design for H.264/AVC [J]. IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems for Video Technology, 2010, 20(11): 1409-1422.
HSIA S C, CHENG S C, CHOU S W. Efficient adaptive error concealment technique for video decoding system [J]. IEEE Transactions on Multimedia, 2005, 7(5): 860-868.
AGRAFIOTIS D, BULL D R, CANAGARAJAH. Enhanced error concealment with mode selection [J]. IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems for Video Technology, 2006, 16(8): 960-973.
Heinrich Hertz Institute. VCEG reference software version JM15.1 [CP/OL].(2009-7-7)[2010-03-25]. http:∥iphome.hhi.de/suehring/tml/download/old_jm/jm15.1.zip.
WENGER S. Proposed error patterns for internet experiments [EB/OL].(1999-10-3)[2010-09-20].http:∥ftp3.itu.ch/av-arch/video-site/9910_Red/q15i16.zip.