Optimized bit extraction of SVC exploiting linear error model

Abstract

The Scalable Video Coding (SVC) extension of the H.264/AVC video coding standard supports fidelity or quality (SNR) scalability. The quality enhancement packets would be discarded in case of limited network capacity, which calls for an optimized bit extraction strategy. In this paper, we first analyze the linear feature in H.264/AVC video coding. A linear error model is also constructed using this feature in case of SVC quality scalability. Then based on the linear error model, the rate and distortion (R-D) impact of each quality enhancement packet over the whole sequence is obtained. Finally a new priority assigning algorithm is designed for a more efficient extraction, giving high rank to those with great R-D impacts. Extensive experiments are presented to demonstrate the accuracy of the linear error model and the validity of the priority assigning algorithm. Tests on the set of eight standard video sequences show the quality promotion under any bitrate constraint, and a fidelity gain up to 0.4 dB PSNR is achieved by the proposed strategy, compared to the JSVM reference software with Quality Layer information.