Encoding optimization of low resolution soccer video sequences

In this article we propose an optimization method for encoding low resolution soccer video sequences. The considered video codec is the state of the art H.264/AVC, as recommended by the 3GPP specifications. The proposed optimization aims at maximizing the user perceived quality, considering the characteristic features of soccer videos. In the typical wide angle shots, about one fourth of each frame contains the grandstands. Even if, from the observerpsilas point of view, they can be considered as side information, the performed analysis showed that a prominent fraction of the resulting bandwidth is allocated to them. Our approach consists of a segmentation of the picture intended to recognize three components: the field, the audience and the remaining objects: the ball, the players and the field lines. The resulting map will be then utilized while encoding to optimize the bitrate assigned to each macroblock group, targeting the best resulting subjective perceived quality.