Video Coding

Introduction

Video Coding
The objective of video coding is to compress moving images.

The MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group) and H.26X are the major standards for video coding.

Basic Concept
Use interframe correlation for attaining better rate-distorion performance.

Chronological Table of Video Coding Standards

ITU-T
VCEG
H.261 (1990)

ISO/IEC
MPEG

H.263 H.263++ (1995/96) H.263+ (2000) (1997/98) H.264 MPEG-2 ( MPEG-4 (H.262) Part 10 ) (1994/95) MPEG-4 v1 (2002) (1998/99) MPEG-4 v2 (1999/00) MPEG-1 MPEG-4 v3 (1993) (2001)

1990

1992

1994

1996

1998

2000

2002 200

Features of Moving Pictures

Moving images contain significant temporal redundancy successive frames are very similar

Intraframe and Interframe Coding

Video coding algorithms usually contains two coding schemes :

1. Intraframe coding 2. Interframe coding.

Intraframe Coding

Intraframe coding does not exploit the correlation among adjacent frames; Intraframe coding therefore is similar to the still image coding.

Interframe Coding

The interframe coding should include motion estimation/compensation process to remove temporal redundancy.

Motion Estimation and Compensation

The amount of data to be coded can be reduced significantly if the previous frame is subtracted from the current frame.

Block-Matching

The MPEG and H.26X standards use block-matching technique for motion estimation /compensation. In the block-matching technique, each current frame is divide into equal-size blocks, called source blocks. Each source block is associated with a search region in the reference frame.

The objective of block-matching is to find a candidate block in the search region best matched to the source block. The relative distances between a source block and its candidate blocks are called motion vectors.

Video Sequence

X: Source block for block-matching Bx: Search area associated with X MV: Motion vector
The reconstructed reference frame

The current frame

The reconstructed previous frame

The current frame

Results of blockmatching

The predicted current frame

Predicted Current Frame

Displaced Frame Difference (DFD,)

Motion vector and search area

Search Area Source block

Candidate block

Search Area: n 2 p n 2 p Motion vector: (u, v)

Full-search algorithm
u

Candidate Block

Search Area

If p=7, then there are (2p+1)(2p+1)=225 candidate blocks.

Three-step algorithm
-7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
1 1
2 2 2 2

-6

-5

-4

-3

-2

-1

The first step involves block-matching based on 4-pel resolution at the nine location. The second step involves block-matching based on 2-pel resolution around the location determined by the first step. The third step repeats the process in the second step (but with resolution 1-pel).

Video Coding Based on BlockMatching

Assume frame f-1 has been encoded and reconstructed, and frame f is the current frame to be encoded.

Encoder side 1. Divide frame f into equal-size blocks. 2. For each source block obtained in step1, (2.1) Find its motion vector using the block-matching algorithm based on the reconstructed frame f-1. (2.2) Compute the DFD of the block.

3. Transmit the motion vector of each block to decoder. 4. Compress DFDs of each block. 5. Transmit the encoded DFDs to decoder.

The block diagram of an encoder based on block-matching

Coder Control

Control Data Encoded DFD

Video in

DFD

Decoder

Transform/ Quantizer

Deq./Inv. Transform Reconstructed DFD Reconstructed current frame Entropy Coding

Predicted current frame 0 Intra/Inter MotionCompensated Predictor

Motion Estimator

Motion Vector

Decoder side 1.Receive motion vector of each block from encoder. 2.Based on the motion vector ,find the bestmatching block from the reference frame. That is, find the predicted current frame from the reference frame.

3.Receive the encoded DFD of each block from encoder. 4.Decode the DFD. 5.Each reconstructed block in the current frame = Its decompressed DFD + the best-matching block.

The block diagram of a decoder based on block-matching

Encoded DFD

Encoded bitstream in

Predicted current frame

Reconstructed DFD Reconstructed current frame

Motion vector

Bidirectional Prediction

The block-matching operations can be extended for bi-directional prediction, where a block in the current frame is estimated from a block in: (a) Previous frame (b) Future frame

Each block in a bi-directional frame is the average of a block in the previous frame and a block in the future frame.

A video sequences therefore may contain three different types of frames: (a) Intra frames, (I-frames) (b) Predicted frames (P-frames), (c) Bi-directional frames (B-frames)

The MPEG standards uses all the three types of frames as shown below.

Encoding order: I0, P3, B1, B2, P6, B4, B5, I9, B7, B8. Playback order: I0, B1, B2, P3, B4, B5, P6, B7, B8, I9.

Video Structure

Video standards such as MPEG and H.26X code video sequences in hierarchy of layers. There are usually 5 layers: 1. GOP (Group of pictures) 2. Picture 3. Slice 4. Marcoblock 5. Block

A GOP usually started with I frame, followed by a sequence of P and B frames. A Picture is indeed a frame in the video sequence.

A Slice is a portion in a picture. Some standards do not have slices. Some view a slice as a row. Each slice in H.264 is not necessary to be a row. It can be any shape containing integral number of macroblocks.

A Macroblock is a 1616 block. Many standards use Marcoblocks as the basic unit for block-matching operations. A Block is a 88 block. Many standards use the Blocks as the basic unit for DCT.

Scalable Video Coding

Three classes of scalable video coding techniques:

Temporal Scalability Spatial Scalability SNR Scalability

Temporal Scalability
We can use B frames for attaining temporal scalability.
B frames depend on other frames. No other frames depend on B frames. We can discard B frames without affecting other frames.

Spatial (Resolution) Scalability

Here the base layer is the low resolution version of the video sequence.

SNR Scalability
The base layer uses coaser quantizer for DFD coding. The residuals in the base layer is refined in the enhancement layer.