Error sensitivity testing for the MC-EZBC scalable wavelet video coder

The paper looks at the error resiliency of the motion-compensated embedded zero block coder (MC-EZBC). The MC-EZBC is gaining momentum as a motion compensated temporal filtering solution. We propose to demultiplex the MC-EZBC bitstream into seven bit categories and examine the effect of bit errors on each bit category. It is shown that different bit categories have different immunity to bit errors. The significance map at quadtree level zero, the motion vectors and the coefficients sign bits are shown to be the most sensitive. These categories exceed 60% of the total bitrate. It is concluded that employing unequal error protection for the motion fields is sufficient. The coding algorithm need not be modified, hence preserving its bitstream embedding and universal scalability feature.