Improving Compression Efficiency using an Encoder-aware Motion Compensated Temporal Filter

Motion Compensated Temporal Filtering (MCTF) is a pre-processing approach employed prior to video encoding, for improving the compression efficiency. Prior MCTF designs (e.g. [1]) use pre-defined frame-level quantization parameters (QPs) for different slice types and temporal layers, and operate with a fixed Group of Pictures (GOP) structure. However, commercial encoders can adapt GOP structure based upon content characteristics, and can also adapt QPs on a block-basis based upon the frequency of the block being referenced and the spatial complexity of the block, causing prior MCTF to perform sub-optimally with commercial encoders.