Region-Based perceptual quality regulable bit allocation and rate control for video coding applications

Abstract

In this paper, a perceptual quality regulable H.264 video encoder system has been developed. We use structure similarity index as the quality metric for distortion-quantization modeling and develop a bit allocation and rate control scheme for enhancing regional perceptual quality. Exploiting the relationship between the reconstructed macroblock and its best predicted macroblock from mode decision, a novel quantization parameter prediction method is built and used to regulate the video quality of the processing macroblock according to a target perceptual quality. Experimental results show that the model can achieve high accurate. Compared to JM reference software with macroblock layer rate control, the proposed encoding system can effectively enhance perceptual quality for target video regions.