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Real-time error concealing bitstream adaptation methods for SVC in IPTV systems

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Abstract

The current heterogeneity in networks and devices demands for a high degree of flexibility in IPTV systems for digital television. A scalable video coding scheme (in this paper we focus on H.264/AVC’s scalable video coding extension SVC) accommodates this flexibility from the coding point of view. Because the IP-based network delivery chain in IPTV systems may suffer from packet loss (having a severe impact on the visual quality) it is necessary to provide means for error concealment. In this paper we propose a novel method that performs adaptation on impaired SVC bitstreams so that the resulting adapted bitstream is compliant to the SVC specification and that the reconstruction result at the decoder is equivalent compared to the approach where the error concealment is implemented in the decoder itself. The adapted bitstreams have a significantly higher visual quality while our approach does not require any modification to existing SVC-compliant decoders. The results of several experiments show that the proposed method is extremely fast (over 900 frames/s) and that it introduces a negligible overhead in terms of bit rate (ca. 0.02%).

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Notes

  1. Note that H.264/AVC and SVC provide maximum flexibility concerning GOP structures, allowing for example the use of hierarchical P pictures for temporal scalability.

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Acknowledgments

The research activities as described in this paper were funded by Ghent University, the Interdisciplinary Institute for Broadband Technology (IBBT), the Institute for the Promotion of Innovation by Science and Technology in Flanders (IWT), the Fund for Scientific Research-Flanders (FWO-Flanders), and the European Union.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Multimedia Lab, Department of Electronics and Information Systems, Ghent University, IBBT, Gaston Crommenlaan 8 bus 201, 9050, Ledeberg-Ghent, Belgium

    Peter Lambert, Pedro Debevere, Jan De Cock & Rik Van de Walle

  2. Bell Labs, Alcatel-Lucent Bell NV, Copernicuslaan 50, 2018, Antwerp, Belgium

    Jean-François Macq, Natalie Degrande & Danny De Vleeschauwer

Authors
  1. Peter Lambert
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  2. Pedro Debevere
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  3. Jan De Cock
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  4. Jean-François Macq
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  5. Natalie Degrande
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  6. Danny De Vleeschauwer
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  7. Rik Van de Walle
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Correspondence to Peter Lambert.

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Lambert, P., Debevere, P., De Cock, J. et al. Real-time error concealing bitstream adaptation methods for SVC in IPTV systems. J Real-Time Image Proc 4, 79–90 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11554-008-0104-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11554-008-0104-y

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