Error resilience video coding in H.264 encoder with potential distortion tracking

In this paper, an efficient rate-distortion (RD) model for an H.264 video encoder in a packet loss environment is presented. The encoder keeps tracking the potential error propagation on a block basis by taking into account the source characteristics, network conditions as well as the error concealment method. The end-to-end distortion invoked in this RD model is estimated according to the potential error-propagated distortion stored in a distortion map. The distortion map, in terms of each frame, is derived after the frame is encoded, which can be used for the RD-based encoding of the subsequent frames. Since the channel distortion has been considered in the proposed RD model, the new Lagarangian parameter is derived accordingly. The proposed method outperforms the error robust rate-distortion optimization method in the H.264 test model better in terms of both transmission efficiency and computational complexity.