This article is part of the series Video Adaptation for Heterogeneous Environments.

Open Access Research Article

A Multiple-Window Video Embedding Transcoder Based on H.264/AVC Standard

Chih-Hung Li*, Chung-Neng Wang and Tihao Chiang

Author Affiliations

Department of Electronics Engineering, National Chiao-Tung University, 1001 Ta-Hsueh Road, Hsinchu 30010, Taiwan

For all author emails, please log on.

EURASIP Journal on Advances in Signal Processing 2007, 2007:013790 doi:10.1155/2007/13790


The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at: http://asp.eurasipjournals.com/content/2007/1/013790


Received:6 September 2006
Accepted:26 April 2007
Published:4 July 2007

© 2007 Li et al.

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

This paper proposes a low-complexity multiple-window video embedding transcoder (MW-VET) based on H.264/AVC standard for various applications that require video embedding services including picture-in-picture (PIP), multichannel mosaic, screen-split, pay-per-view, channel browsing, commercials and logo insertion, and other visual information embedding services. The MW-VET embeds multiple foreground pictures at macroblock-aligned positions. It improves the transcoding speed with three block level adaptive techniques including slice group based transcoding (SGT), reduced frame memory transcoder (RFMT), and syntax level bypassing (SLB). The SGT utilizes prediction from the slice-aligned data partitions in the original bitstreams such that the transcoder simply merges the bitstreams by parsing. When the prediction comes from the newly covered area without slice-group data partitions, the pixels at the affected macroblocks are transcoded with the RFMT based on the concept of partial reencoding to minimize the number of refined blocks. The RFMT employs motion vector remapping (MVR) and intra mode switching (IMS) to handle intercoded blocks and intracoded blocks, respectively. The pixels outside the macroblocks that are affected by newly covered reference frame are transcoded by the SLB. Experimental results show that, as compared to the cascaded pixel domain transcoder (CPDT) with the highest complexity, our MW-VET can significantly reduce the processing complexity by 25 times and retain the rate-distortion performance close to the CPDT. At certain bit rates, the MW-VET can achieve up to 1.5 dB quality improvement in peak signal-to-noise-ratio (PSNR).

References

  1. ITU-T Rec. H.264, ISO/IEC 14496-10 (MPEG4-AVC), Advanced Video Coding for Generic Audiovisual Services v1, May 2003; v2, January 2004; v3, September 2004; v4, July 2005

  2. S Wenger, H.264/AVC over IP. IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems for Video Technology 13(7), 645–656 (2003). Publisher Full Text OpenURL

  3. MD Nava, C Del-Toso, A short overview of the VDSL system requirements. IEEE Communications Magazine 40(12), 82–90 (2002). Publisher Full Text OpenURL

  4. S Naimpally, L Johnson, T Darby, R Meyer, L Phillips, J Vantrease, Integrated digital IDTV receiver with features. IEEE Transactions on Consumer Electronics 34(3), 410–419 (1988). Publisher Full Text OpenURL

  5. D Gillies, R Schweer, H Zibold, VLSI realisations for picture in picture and flicker free television display. IEEE Transactions on Consumer Electronics 34(1), 253–261 (1988). Publisher Full Text OpenURL

  6. M Burkert, F Frieling, U Langenkamp, U Libal, M Mende, G Scheffler, IC set for a picture-in-picture system with on-chip memory. IEEE Transactions on Consumer Electronics 36(1), 23–31 (1990). Publisher Full Text OpenURL

  7. CA Mancini, CP Markhauser, Microprocessor controlled picture in picture system. IEEE Transactions on Consumer Electronics 36(3), 375–379 (1990). Publisher Full Text OpenURL

  8. M Honzawa, M Koyama, T Hibino, H Miyashita, Y Shiine, New picture in picture LSI enhanced functionality for high picture quality. IEEE Transactions on Consumer Electronics 36(3), 387–394 (1990). Publisher Full Text OpenURL

  9. LD Johnson, JN Pratt, DC Greene, Low cost picture-in-picture for color TV receivers. IEEE Transactions on Consumer Electronics 36(3), 380–386 (1990). Publisher Full Text OpenURL

  10. S Tsuchida, C Yoshida, Multi-picture system for high resolution wide aspect ratio screen. IEEE Transactions on Consumer Electronics 37(3), 313–319 (1991). Publisher Full Text OpenURL

  11. GW Perkins, RC Hathaway, SW Lai, et al. A low cost, monolithic, color picture-in-picture device. IEEE Transactions on Consumer Electronics 40(3), 306–316 (1994). Publisher Full Text OpenURL

  12. A Rick, T Herfet, SJ Prange, Digital color decoder for PIP-applications. IEEE Transactions on Consumer Electronics 42(3), 716–720 (1996). Publisher Full Text OpenURL

  13. M Brett, D Wendel, High performance picture-in-picture (PIP) IC using embedded DRAM technology. IEEE Transactions on Consumer Electronics 45(3), 698–705 (1999). Publisher Full Text OpenURL

  14. M Schu, G Scheffler, C Tuschen, A Stolze, System on silicon-IC for motion compensated scan rate conversion, picture-in-picture processing, split screen applications and display processing. IEEE Transactions on Consumer Electronics 45(3), 842–850 (1999). Publisher Full Text OpenURL

  15. M Schu, D Wendel, C Tuschen, M Hahn, U Langenkamp, System-on-silicon solution for high quality consumer video processing—the next generation. IEEE Transactions on Consumer Electronics 47(3), 412–419 (2001). Publisher Full Text OpenURL

  16. C Hentschel, RJ Bril, Y Chen, R Braspenning, T-H Lan, Video quality-of-service for consumer terminals—a novel system for programmable components. IEEE Transactions on Consumer Electronics 49(4), 1367–1377 (2003). Publisher Full Text OpenURL

  17. I Ahmad, X Wei, Y Sun, Y-Q Zhang, Video transcoding: an overview of various techniques and research issues. IEEE Transactions on Multimedia 7(5), 793–804 (2005)

  18. S-F Chang, DG Messerschmitt, Compositing motion-compensated video within the network. Proceedings of the 4th IEEE ComSoc International Workshop on Multimedia Communications (MULTIMEDIA '92), April 1992, Monterey, Calif, USA, 40–56

  19. S-F Chang, DG Messerschmitt, Manipulation and compositing of MC-DCT compressed video. IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications 13(1, part 2), 1–11 (1995). Publisher Full Text OpenURL

  20. Y Noguchi, DG Messerschmitt, S-F Chang, MPEG video compositing in the compressed domain. Proceedings of IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems (ISCAS '96), May 1996, Atlanta, Ga, USA 2, 596–599

  21. B Yu, K Nahrstedt, Internet-based interactive HDTV. Multimedia Systems 9(5), 477–489 (2004). Publisher Full Text OpenURL

  22. Y-P Tan, H Sun, Fast motion re-estimation for arbitrary downsizing video transcoding using H.264/AVC standard. IEEE Transactions on Consumer Electronics 50(3), 887–894 (2004). Publisher Full Text OpenURL

  23. C-H Li, C-N Wang, T Chiang, A fast downsizing video transcoding based on H.264/AVC standard. Proceedings of the 5th IEEE Pacific Rim Conference on Multimedia (PCM '04), November-December 2004, Tokyo, Japan, 215–223

  24. H Shen, X Sun, F Wu, H Li, S Li, A fast downsizing video transcoder for H.264/AVC with rate-distortion optimal mode decision. Proceedings of IEEE International Conference on Multimedia and Expo (ICME '06), July 2006, Toronto, Ontario, Canada 1, 2017–2020

  25. N Merhav, V Bhaskaran, A fast algorithm for DCT-domain inverse motion compensation. Proceedings of IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing (ICASSP '96), May 1996, Atlanta, Ga, USA 4, 2307–2310

  26. J Song, B-L Yeo, A fast algorithm for DCT-domain inverse motion compensation based on shared information in a macroblock. IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems for Video Technology 10(5), 767–775 (2000). Publisher Full Text OpenURL

  27. S Liu, AC Bovik, Local bandwidth constrained fast inverse motion compensation for DCT-domain video transcoding. IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems for Video Technology 12(5), 309–319 (2002). Publisher Full Text OpenURL

  28. H Shen, X Sun, F Wu, H Li, S Li, A fast downsizing video transcoder for H.264/AVC with rate-distortion optimal mode decision. Proceedings of IEEE International Conference on Multimedia and Expo (ICME '06), July 2006, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 2017–2020

  29. J Bialkowski, M Barkouwsky, F Leschka, A Kaup, Low-complexity transcoding of inter coded video frames from H.264 to H.263. Proceedings of IEEE International Conference on Image Processing (ICIP '06), October 2006, Atlanta, Ga, USA, 837–840

  30. JH Hur, YL Lee, H.264 to MPEG-4 transcoding using block type information. Proceedings of IEEE International Conference Region 10 (TENCON '05), November 2005, Melbourne, Australia, 1–6

  31. Y-P Tan, H Sun, Fast motion re-estimation for arbitrary downsizing video transcoding using H.264/AVC standard. IEEE Transactions on Consumer Electronics 50(3), 887–894 (2004). Publisher Full Text OpenURL

  32. P Zhang, Y Lu, Q Huang, W Gao, Mode mapping method for H.264/AVC spatial downscaling transcoding. Proceedings of International Conference on Image Processing (ICIP '04), October 2004, Singapore 4, 2781–2784

  33. I-H Shin, Y-L Lee, H-W Park, Motion estimation for frame-rate reduction in H.264 transcoding. Proceedings of the 2nd IEEE Workshop on Software Technologies for Future Embedded and Ubiquitous Systems (WSTFES '04), May 2004, Vienna, Austria 4, 63–67

  34. D Lefol, D Bull, Mode refinement algorithm for H.264 inter frame requantization. Proceedings of IEEE International Conference on Image Processing (ICIP '06), October 2006, Atlanta, Ga, USA, 845–848

  35. J Zhang, A Perkis, ND Georganas, H.264/AVC and transcoding for multimedia adaptation. Proceedings of the 6th COST 276 Workshop, May 2004, Thessaloniki, Greece

  36. X Xiu, L Zhuo, L Shen, A H.264 bit rate transcoding scheme based on PID controller. Proceedings of IEEE International Symposium on Communications and Information Technologies (ISCIT '05), October 2005, Beijing, China 2, 1074–1077

  37. D Lefol, D Bull, N Canagarajah, Performance evaluation of transcoding algorithms for H.264. IEEE Transactions on Consumer Electronics 52(1), 215–222 (2006)

  38. C-H Li, C-N Wang, T Chiang, A low complexity picture-in-picture transcoder for video-on-demand. Proceedings of IEEE International Conference on Wireless Networks, Communications and Mobile Computing (WirelessCom '05), June 2005, Maui, Hawaii, USA 2, 1382–1387

  39. C-H Li, H Lin, C-N Wang, T Chiang, A fast H.264-based picture-in-picture (PIP) transcoder. Proceedings of IEEE International Conference on Multimedia and Expo (ICME '04), June 2004, Taipei, Taiwan 3, 1691–1694

  40. A Levi, H Stark, Restoration from phase and magnitude by generalized projections. Image Recovery Theory and Application (Academic Press, Orlando, Fla, USA, 1987), pp. 277–319

  41. S-H Wang, W-H Peng, Y He, et al. A software-hardware co-implementation of MPEG-4 advanced video coding (AVC) decoder with block level pipelining. The Journal of VLSI Signal Processing 41(1), 93–110 (2005). Publisher Full Text OpenURL

  42. C Chen, P-H Wu, H Chen, Transform-domain intra prediction for H.264. Proceedings of IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems (ISCAS '05), May 2005, Kobe, Japan 2, 1497–1500