Review of Standard Traditional Distortion Metrics and a need for Perceptual Distortion Metric at a (Sub) Macroblock Level

Within a video encoder the distortion metric performs an Image Quality Assessment (IQA). However, to exploit perceptual redundancy to lower the convex hull of the Rate-Distortion (R-D) curve, a Perceptual Distortion Metric (PDM) modelling of the Human Visual System (HVS) should be used. Since block-based video encoders like H.264/AVC operate at the Sub-Macroblock (Sub-MB) level, there exists a need to produce a locally operating PDM. A locally operating PDM must meet the requirements of Standard Traditional Distortion Metrics (STDMs), in that it must satisfy the Triangle Equality Rule (≤). Hence, this paper presents a review of STDMs of SSE, SAD and SATD against the perceptual IQA of Structural Similarity (SSIM) at the Sub-MB level. Furthermore, this paper illustrates the Universal Bounded Region (UBR) by block size that supports the triangle equality rule (≤) within the Sub-MB level, between SSIM and STDMs like SATD at the prediction stage.