Transform Skip Mode Research Articles

Learning-Based Early Transform Skip Mode Decision for VVC Screen Content Coding

One of the design goals of the recently published international video coding standard, Versatile Video Coding (VVC/H.266), is efficient coding of computer-generated video content (commonly referred to as screen content) which exhibits different signal characteristics from the usual camera-captured video (commonly referred as natural content). VVC can perform transform in multiple different ways including skipping the transform itself, which demands much computation for its best selection among many combinatory options. In this paper, we investigate designing a machine-learning-based early transform skip mode decision (ML-TSM) which makes a determination whether or not to skip the transform in an early stage by making a simple classification employing key features designed in such a way to reflect the characteristics of TSM blocks well. Compared with the VVC reference software 14.0, the proposed scheme is verified to reduce computational complexity by 11% and 4% with a Bjontegaard delta bitrate (BDBR) increase of 0.34% and 0.23% respectively under all-intra (AI) and random-access (RA) configurations.

Residual DPCM in HEVC Transform Skip Mode for Screen Content Coding

High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) adopts intra transform skip mode, in which a residual block is directly quantized in the pixel domain without transforming the block into the frequency domain. Intra transform skip mode provides a significant coding gain for screen content. However, when intra-prediction errors are not transformed, the errors are often correlated along the intra-prediction direction. This paper introduces a residual differential pulse code modulation (DPCM) method for the intra-predicted and transform-skipped blocks to remove redundancy. The proposed method performs pixel-by-pixel residual prediction along the intra-prediction direction to reduce the dynamic range of intra-prediction errors. Experimental results show that the transform skip mode’s Bjontegaard delta rate (BD-rate) is improved by 12.8% for vertically intra-predicted blocks. Overall, the proposed method shows an average 1.2% reduction in BD-rate, relative to HEVC, with negligible computational complexity.

An HEVC-Compliant Perceptual Video Coding Scheme Based on JND Models for Variable Block-Sized Transform Kernels

In this paper, a High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC)-compliant perceptual video coding (PVC) scheme is introduced based on just-noticeable difference (JND) models in both transform and pixel domains. We adopt an existing pixel-domain JND model for the transform skip mode of HEVC and propose a transform-domain JND model for the transform nonskip modes of HEVC. The proposed transform-domain JND model is designed by considering the spatial JND characteristics such as contrast sensitivity, luminance adaptation, and contrast masking effects as well as by considering the summation effects of variable block-sized transforms in HEVC. A temporal JND model is additionally incorporated into the proposed transform-domain JND model to further reduce perceptual redundancy. To incorporate the transform- and pixel-domain JND models into the encoding process in an HEVC-compliant manner, the transform coefficients and residues are suppressed in harmonization with the transform/quantization process and the quantization-only process of HEVC, respectively. To make the JND-based suppression effective, a distortion compensation factor is also proposed to reflect the perceptual distortion in the rate-distortion optimization-based encoding process. Based on subjective quality assessments of the encoded bit streams of test sequences, the proposed HEVC-compliant PVC scheme yields remarkable bitrate reductions of a maximum 49.10% and an average 16.10% with negligible subjective quality loss, compared with an HEVC reference software HEVC test model (HM 11.0). In addition, the proposed HEVC-compliant PVC scheme increases the encoding complexity of HM 11.0 only by an average of 11.25%.

HEVC 부호화를 위한 변환생략 모드 고속 선택 방법

HEVC (High Efficiency Video Coding) 부호화 기술은 기존 기술을 더욱 정교하게 하고 많은 새로운 부호화 기법을 채택한 결과, 기존 비디오 부호화 표준인 H.264/AVC 대비 약 2배정도 압축률 향상을 이루었다. HEVC에 채택된 새로운 부호화 기술 중 하나인 변환을 생략하고 양자화만을 수행하는 변환생략 부호화 방법은, 특히 컴퓨터로 생성된 인공영상 또는 이와 유사한 성질을 갖는 영상영역의 부호화 시 큰 압축률 향상을 가져올 수 있다. 하지만 입력 영상의 전체 또는 국부적인 성질을 미리 알 수 없기 때문에, 변환생략 필요 여부를 매번 판별하여야 한다. 즉, 변환수행 혹은 변환생략 각 경우의 율-왜곡 비용을 산출하여 부호화모드를 결정하려면 연산복잡도가 증가한다. 본 논문에서는 잔차신호의 주파수적 특성을 고려하여, 변환생략의 율-왜곡 산출 여부에 대한 고속 판별 방법을 제안한다. 제안 방법을 적용할 경우, <TEX>$4{\times}4$</TEX> 변환 블록 부호화 시간의 약 27.1%를 절감할 수 있으며, 이때 저하되는 율-왜곡 성능은 평균적으로 약 0.03% (BDBR)에 불과하다. HEVC (High Efficiency Video Coding) fine-tuned many existing coding tools and adopted also many new coding techniques. As a result, HEVC has accomplished about 2 times of compression efficiency enhancement compared to the existing video coding standard of H.264/AVC. One of the newly adopted tools in HEVC is the transform skip scheme which performs quantization without transform. This technique improves coding efficiency especially with computer-generated images. However, the unavailability of global or local properties of general video signals demands encoder to decide whether performing transform or not for each TU (Transform Unit). The necessity of computing rate-distortion costs for this decision is one reason to increase encoder complexity. In this paper, a fast transform skip mode decision method is proposed, which is based on the fast decision of rate-distortion cost calculation for transform skip mode, by considering frequency characteristics of residual signal. The proposed method can reduce <TEX>$4{\times}4$</TEX> TU encoding time by about 27.1% with only about 0.03% consequential decrement in BDBR.

Adaptive transform skipping for improved coding of motion compensated residuals

New generations of video compression algorithms, such as those included in the under development High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) standard, provide substantially higher compression compared to their ancestors. The gain is achieved by improved prediction of pixels, both within a frame and between frames. Novel coding tools that contribute to the gain provide highly uncorrelated prediction residuals for which classical frequency decomposition methods, such as the discrete cosine transform, may not be able to supply a compact representation with few significant coefficients. To further increase the compression gains, this paper proposes transform skip modes which allow skipping one or both 1-D constituent transforms (i.e., vertical and horizontal), which is more suitable for sparse residuals. The proposed transform skip mode is tested in the HEVC codec and is able to provide bitrate reductions of up to 10% at the same objective quality when compared with the application of 2-D block transforms only. Moreover, the proposed transform skip mode outperforms the full transform skip currently investigated for possible adoption in the HEVC standard.