MultiStage: A MINMAX bit allocation algorithm for video coders

Neva Cherniavsky, Gidon Shavit, Michael F. Ringenburg, Richard E. Ladner, Eve A. Riskin

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

21 Scopus citations

Abstract

Most bit allocation algorithms for video are geared toward optimizing the average frame distortion. However, video sequences optimized this way may exhibit sudden changes in distortion, or "flicker," which can significantly affect the perceived quality of the sequence. An alternative approach is to minimize the maximum frame distortion, which aims to produce a constant-quality sequence, thus avoiding the flicker problem. In this work, we present a new algorithm for constant-quality video, called MultiStage. We first show how MultiStage works for an embedded bit plane coder, and we then demonstrate that it can be applied to traditional quantization-based coders, such as H.263 and H.264, in conjunction with a novel single-frame block-level rate-distortion optimization algorithm based on multiple-choice knapsack. We show that MultiStage achieves very good results, both in terms of maximum distortion and average distortion.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)59-67
Number of pages9
JournalIEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems for Video Technology
Volume17
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 2007

Keywords

  • Constant quality
  • H.263
  • H.264
  • Rate control
  • Rate-distortion optimization (RDO)
  • Variable bit rate (VBR)
  • Video coding

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