Low complexity video coding addresses different applications, and is complementary to, video coding for delivery to the end user. Delivery codecs, such as the MPEG/ITU standards, provide very high compression ratios, but require high complexity and high latency. Some applications, by contrast, need the opposite characteristics of low complexity and low latency at low compression ratios. This paper discusses the applications and requirements of low complexity coding and, after discussing the prior art, describes the standard VC-2 (SMPTE 2042) codec, which is a wavelet codec designed for low complexity and ultra-low latency. VC-2 provides a wide range of coding parameters and compression ratios, allowing it to address applications such as texture coding, lossless and high dynamic range coding. In particular this paper describes the results for the low complexity coding parameters of 2 and 3 level Haar and LeGall wavelet kernels, for image regions of 4x4 and 8x8 pixels with both luma/color difference signals and RGB. The paper indicates the quality that may be achieved at various compression ratios and also clearly shows the benefit of coding luma and color components rather than RGB.

Date Published: 26 September 2013
PDF: 15 pages
Proc. SPIE 8856, Applications of Digital Image Processing XXXVI, 885613 (26 September 2013); doi: 10.1117/12.2023218

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 8856:
Applications of Digital Image Processing XXXVI
Andrew G. Tescher, Editor(s)