Adaptive transform size and frame-field selection for efficient VC-1 to H.264 high profile transcoding

In this paper, we present a novel technique to transcode VC-1 to H.264 high profile (HP). We use the low frequency AC coefficients to estimate the homogeneity of the block to predict the block transform size and use the magnitude of the motion vectors to help decide transcoding mode for interlaced video. We also analyze the drift error specific to transcoding VC-1 to H.264 and apply this study results to improve final video quality. Implementation of the solution shows that the complexity of the transcoder, when compared to a full-cascaded transcoder, is greatly reduced without a significant loss in peak-signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR).