An Efficient Frame-Level Rate Control Algorithm for High Efficiency Video Coding

Abstract

In video coding, the goal of rate control (RC) is not only to avoid the undesirable fluctuation in bit allocation, but also to provide a good visual perception. In this paper, a novel frame-level rate control algorithm for High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) is proposed. Firstly a model that reveals the relationship between bit per pixel (bpp), the bitrate of the intra frame and the bitrate of the subsequent inter frames in a group of pictures (GOP) is established, based on which the target bitrate of the first intra frame is well estimated. Then a novel frame-level bit allocation algorithm is developed, which provides a robust bit balancing scheme between the intra frame and the inter frames in a GOP to achieve the visual quality smoothness throughout the whole sequence. Our experimental results show that when compared to the RC scheme for HEVC encoder HM-16.0, the proposed algorithm can produce reconstructed frames with more consistent objective video quality. In addition, the objective visual quality of the reconstructed frames can be improved with less bitrate.