Synchronization-Sensitive Frame Estimation: Video Quality Enhancement

Abstract

Network transmission is liable to errors and data loss. In movie transmission, packets of video frames are subject to loss or even explicit elimination for many reasons including congestion handling and the achievement of higher compression. Not only does the loss of video frames cause significant reduction in video quality, but it could also cause a loss of synchronization between the audio and video streams. If not corrected, this cumulative loss can seriously degrade the motion picture's quality beyond viewers' tolerance. In this paper, we study and classify the effect of audio-video de-synchronization. Afterwards, we develop and examine the performance and appropriateness of the application of many client-based techniques in the estimation of lost frames using the existing received frames, without the need for retransmissions or error control information. The estimated frames are injected at their appropriate locations in the movie stream to restore the loss. The objective is to enhance video quality by finding a very close estimate to the original frames at a suitable computation cost, and to contribute to the restoration of synchronization within the tolerance level of viewers.