Frequency Selective Update for Video Coding

In this paper the so-called frequency selective update (FSU) technique is presented. FSU is based on a hybrid video coding scheme, where the prediction error is coded and used to correct the prediction signal. This correction of the prediction signal is called update. Standardized video coding schemes such as H.264/AVC apply a transformation, quantization and entropy coding to code the prediction error. In order to reduce the bitrate while keeping the same subjective picture quality, so-called quantization matrices are applied to adapt the quantization to the human visual system (HVS). FSU further enhances the current exploitation of the HVS by selectively updating only few frequency parts. Furthermore, the entropy-coding scheme is adapted to the selected frequency parts and the selection is alternated on frame-by-frame basis. Compared to H.264/AVC high profile, which includes quantization matrices, bitrate reductions of 12-25% are obtained at very similar subjective picture quality.