Effective Frame Level Rate Control for H.264/AVC Video Coding

In this paper, we present a robost frame level rate control algorithm for H.264/AVC compression standard. Particularly, we propose a simple yet effective approach to deal with B frames, including a PSNR-QP model and an adaptive QP computation method for B frames. The objective is to reduce PSNR variations among frames and improve subjective visual quality. To better handle buffer fullness and reduce buffer overflow/underflow, we develop an enhanced proportional- integral-derivative (PID) buffer controller. Our experimental results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm outperforms the JVT-W042 solution by achieving accurate rate regulation, reducing frame skipping, depressing quality fluctuations, and finally, improving coding quality up to 1.43 dB.