Multiple Adaptations and Content-Adaptive FEC Using Parameterized RD Model for Embedded Wavelet Video

Abstract

Scalable video coding (SVC) has been an active research topic for the past decade. In the past, most SVC technologies were based on a coarse-granularity scalable model which puts many scalability constraints on the encoded bitstreams. As a result, the application scenario of adapting a preencoded bitstream multiple times along the distribution chain has not been seriously investigated before. In this paper, a model-based multiple-adaptation framework based on a wavelet video codec, MC-EZBC, is proposed. The proposed technology allows multiple adaptations on both the video data and the content-adaptive FEC protection codes. For multiple adaptations of video data, rate-distortion information must be embedded within the video bitstream in order to allow rate-distortion optimized operations for each adaptation. Experimental results show that the proposed method reduces the amount of side information by more than 50% on average when compared to the existing technique. It also reduces the number of iterations required to perform the tier-2 entropy coding by more than 64% on average. In addition, due to the nondiscrete nature of the rate-distortion model, the proposed framework also enables multiple adaptations of content-adaptive FEC protection scheme for more flexible error-resilient transmission of bitstreams.