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An enhanced fast mode decision model for spatial enhancement layers in scalable video coding

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Abstract

Recently, the H.264/AVC standard has been extended to incorporate Scalable Video Coding (SVC). SVC offers the advantage of scalable (layered) coding, but has the disadvantage of a highly increased computational complexity at the encoder side when dealing with spatial scalability. To restrict the increase in required processing power, fast mode decision models for spatial enhancement layers have been proposed in literature. We propose a novel generic fast mode decision model for spatial enhancement layers for both P and B frames based on both the quantization of the enhancement layer and the correlation between the macroblock type in the enhancement layer and the co-located macroblock in the reference layer. In this paper, an evaluation of the proposed model and comparison with a state-of-the-art model is given. Results show that the proposed technique performs exceptionally well for spatial scalability. For both dyadic and non-dyadic spatial scalability, we achieve an average time saving of 75%, while only a slight bit rate increase of 2.23% and a minor PSNR decrease of 0.46 dB are measured. Compared with state of the art techniques, we further halve the complexity while having comparable rate-distortion results.

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Acknowledgements

The research activities as described in this paper were funded by Ghent University, the Interdisciplinary Institute for Broadband Technology (IBBT), Ph.D. and postdoctoral fellow grants of the Agency for Innovation by Science and Technology (IWT), the Fund for Scientific Research-Flanders (FWO-Flanders), and the European Union.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Multimedia Lab, Department of Electronics and Information Systems, Ghent University—IBBT, Gaston Crommenlaan 8 bus 201, 9050, Ghent, Belgium

    Sebastiaan Van Leuven, Glenn Van Wallendael, Koen De Wolf, Jan De Cock, Peter Lambert & Rik Van de Walle

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  1. Sebastiaan Van Leuven
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  2. Glenn Van Wallendael
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  3. Koen De Wolf
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  4. Jan De Cock
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  5. Peter Lambert
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  6. Rik Van de Walle
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Correspondence to Sebastiaan Van Leuven.

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Van Leuven, S., Van Wallendael, G., De Wolf, K. et al. An enhanced fast mode decision model for spatial enhancement layers in scalable video coding. Multimed Tools Appl 58, 215–237 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-010-0716-7

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