Study of asymmetric quality between coded views in depth-enhanced multiview video coding

Depth-enhanced multiview video formats, such as the multiview video plus depth (MVD) format, enable a natural 3D visual experience which cannot be brought by traditional 2D or stereo video services. In this paper we studied an asymmetric MVD technique for coding of three views that enabled rendering of the same bitstream on stereoscopic displays and multiview autostereoscopic displays. A larger share of bitrate was allocated to a central view, whereas two side views were coded at lower quality. The three decoded views were used by a Depth-Image-Based Rendering algorithm (DIBR) to produce virtual intermediate views. A stereopair at a suitable separation for viewing on a stereoscopic display was selected among the synthesized views. A large-scale subjective assessment of the selected synthesized stereopair was performed. A bitrate reduction of 20% on average and up to 22% was achieved with no penalties on subjective perceived quality. In addition, our analysis shows that a similar bitrate reduction gain with no difference in subjective quality can be achieved in multiview autostereoscopic display scenario.