Improvement of the tile format for stereoscopic video

Tile format is a new frame packing arrangement for the first generation of 3D TV broadcasting services. It puts the left- and right-eye images of each stereoscopic image pair into a single composition frame that allows the service provider to reuse existing production and distribution infrastructure for offering 3D TV services. Different from frame compatible formats, the tile format composition does not down-sample the left- and right-eye images and, thus, provides a higher video quality for both 3D and 2D display. The problem with the tile format is that it creates artificial edges in the right-eye image and introduces visible tiling artifacts around the artificial edges after compression. This paper presents a simple modification to the tile format composition method that significantly reduces the tiling artifacts. Experimental results show that local PSNRs around artificial edges are improved by over 1dB.