H.264 error resilience adaptation to IPTV applications

TV delivery over IP networks (i.e. IPTV) has emerged as one of the major distribution and access techniques for broadband multimedia services. IPTV adopts H.264 as its coding standard due to its high video compression efficiency as well as powerful error resilience features. This paper presents studies on some of the H.264/AVC error resilience features applied to IPTV applications, namely, high definition (i.e., HD IPTV) and wireless/handheld extension. Test systems are deployed to simulate: (1) The delivery of lower resolution TV programs over wireless channels; (2) The delivery of HD video over an xDSL based IPTV network. Flexible Macroblock Ordering (FMO) slice grouping is assessed in handheld IPTV applications. Optimal slice size is obtained for HD video transmission over impaired channels. The quality of experience related to the Instantaneous Decoding Refreshing (IDR) interval is characterized for HD IPTV.