MPEG, ITU-T Issue Scalable Video Coding Standard- ISO/IEC 14496-10
August 1, 2007 // Published as a news service by IHS
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The Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) Joint Video Team (JVT) in collaboration with the International Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T) developed a Scalable Video Coding (SVC) standard.
SVC was approved as Amendment 3 of the Advanced Video Coding (AVC) standard International Organization for Standardization (ISO)/International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) 14496-10 (also published as ITU-T Rec. H.264), with full compatibility of base layer information so that it can be decoded by existing AVC decoders.
The SVC design enables the creation of a video bitstream that is structured in layers. Such an architecture features the ability to decode either the full bitstream or a subset of it with the removal of enhancement layers.
Data remaining after the removal of enhancement layers is still decodable with a decoded video quality that is commensurate with the amount of remaining data.
Scalability modes enabled by the enhancement layer information include temporal (increase of frame rate), spatial (increase of picture resolution) and fidelity (increase of quantization accuracy) scalability.
Applications such as instantaneous (post-encoding) bit rate adaptation under varying channel conditions, adaptation for various displays and terminal types and compatible extension of existing services such as support for both 720-line and 1080-line high-definition (HD) formats from a single video stream are supported.
Unlike previous scalable compression solutions, the compression efficiency of SVC is very high and hardly distinguishable from "single-layer" AVC codecs in most operation modes. Due to a novel design which reuses major components of ordinary AVC decoders and runs only one motion compensation loop, the complexity increase for supporting the scalability features in decoders is kept to a minimum.
To fully support SVC applications at the systems level, a new amendment to the AVC file format ( ISO/IEC 14496-15) and a new amendment to MPEG-2 systems ( ISO/IEC 13818-1/ ITU-T Rec. H.222.0) were started for supporting the new SVC extensions of the AVC video standard.
The new Amendment 2 to the AVC file format, referred to as the SVC file format, will support storage and use of SVC scalable video data based on the AVC file format.
At the 81st meeting, the MPEG forwarded this amendment to the final proposed draft amendment ballot (FPDAM ) stage of the ISO/IEC approval process.
The SVC file format not only stores the SVC bitstreams in an AVC compatible way but also stores descriptors and options for how subsets of these streams can be extracted for different levels of fidelity, resolution and frame rate.
An example application that would rely on this amendment is the streaming (unicast or multicast) of scalable video content to clients with a variety of decoding and display capabilities (or preferences) and connection bandwidths.
The SVC file format provides a flexible and efficient alternative to the otherwise more complicated solution of having to transcode the bitstream to meet the various requirements of the end-user clients.
The new Amendment 3 to MPEG-2 Systems (2006 edition) enables the carriage of scalable video data within MPEG-2 program and transport streams.
At the 81st meeting, the MPEG forwarded this amendment to the proposed draft amendment (PDAM) ballot stage of the ISO/IEC approval process.
This new MPEG-2 extension facilitates the use of AVC video over MPEG-2 streams for higher spatial or temporal resolution or higher picture fidelity at the same resolution.
One application scenario where this extension is especially useful is to provide broadcasters with the ability to efficiently deploy premium services without affecting their existing customer base.
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Such a premium service could be the enhancement from HD formats to the higher quality and resolution of AVC formats. Set-top boxes with 1080p50/60 SVC capability on top of the existing HD AVC formats can be shipped to premium customers without the need to replace existing HD AVC set-top boxes.
Source: International Organization for Standardization Technical Committee (ISOTC).