• Journal of KIISE:Information Networking
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.235-242
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• 2008

To improve video quality and coding efficiency, H.264/AVC adopted an adaptive rate control. But this method has a problem as it cannot predict an accurate quantization parameter(QP) for the first frame. The first QP is decided among four constant values by using encoder input parameters. It does not consider encoding bits, results in significant fluctuation of the image quality and decreases the average quality of the whole coded sequence. In this paper, we propose a new algorithm for the first frame QP decision in the H.264/AVC encoder. The QP is decided by the existing algorithm and the first frame is encoded. According to the encoded bits, the new initial QP is decided. We can predict optimal value because there is a linear relationship between encoded bits and the new initial QP. Next, we re-encode the first frame using the new initial QP. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm not only achieves better quality than the state of the art algorithm, but also adopts a rate control forthe sequence that was impossible with the existing algorithm. By reducing fluctuation, subjective quality also improved.

• Journal of Broadcast Engineering
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.349-356
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• 2016

In this paper, we propose an efficient assignment method that assigns quantization parameter (QP) in accordance with group of picture (GOP) structure given in HEVC encoder. Each video frames can have difference QP values based on given GOP configuration for HEVC encoding. Particularly, for important frames we can assign low QP values, and vice versa. However, there has not been thorough investigation on efficient QP assignment method by far. Even in HEVC reference software encoder, only monotonic QP assignment method is employed. Thus, the proposed method assign adaptive QP values to each GOP so that temporal dynamic activity between GOPs can be exploited. Through the experiment, the proposed method showed a 7.3% gain of compression performance in terms of BD-rate compared to HEVC test model (HM) in low-delay configuration, and outperformed the existing QP assignment study on average.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SD
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• v.44 no.11
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• pp.127-136
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• 2007

An abrupt scene-change frame is one that is hardly correlated with the previous frames. In that case, because an intra-coded frame has less distortion than an inter-coded one, almost all macroblocks are encoded in intra mode. This breaks up the rate control flow and increases the number of bits used. Since the reference software for H.264 takes no special action for a scene-change frame, several studies have been conducted to solve the problem using the quadratic R-D model. However, since this model is more suitable for inter frames, the existing schemes are unsuitable for computing the QP of the scene-change intra frame. In this paper, an improved rate control scheme accounting for the characteristics of intra coding is proposed for scene-change frames. The proposed scheme was validated using 16 test sequences. The results showed that the proposed scheme performed better than the existing H.264 rate control schemes. The PSNR was improved by an average of 0.4-0.6 dB and a maximum of 1.1-1.6 dB. The PSNR fluctuation was also in proved by an average of 18.6 %.