Macroblock-based reverse play algorithm for MPEG video streaming

Reverse playback is the most common video cassette recording (VCR) functions in many digital video players. However, the predictive processing techniques employed in MPEG severely complicate the reverse-play operation. In this paper, we propose a compressed-domain approach for the efficient implementation of an MPEG video streaming system to provide the reverse-play operation over a network. This allows the minimum requirement on the network bandwidth and decoder complexity. In the proposed video streaming server, a macroblock-based algorithm is used to adaptively select the necessary macroblocks, manipulate some of the macroblocks in VLC-domain and send the processed macroblocks to the client machine. Experimental results show that, as compared to the conventional system, the new streaming system reduces the required network bandwidth and the decoder complexity significantly.