Optimized transmission of H.26L/JVT coded video over packet-lossy networks

Transmission of hybrid coded video including motion compensation and spatial prediction over error-prone channels results in the well-known problem of spatio-temporal error propagation at the decoder. A widely accepted standard-compliant technique to enhance the quality of the decoded video significantly is the more frequent introduction of intra-coded macroblocks. However, intra-coded information generally requires more bit rate. Therefore, a careful selection of intra-updates in terms of rate and distortion is necessary. A flexible and robust rate-distortion optimization technique is presented to select coding mode and reference frame for each macroblock. The channel statistics are included in the optimization process. We derive a method to obtain an estimate of the decoder pixel distortion at the encoder. The presented techniques are verified within the new H.26L/JVT video coding standard based on common test conditions.