Cross Segment Decoding of HEVC for Network Video Applications

In this paper, we present an improved algorithm for decoding video bitstreams with time-varying visual quality. The algorithm extracts information available to the decoder from a high visual quality segment of the clip that has already been received and decoded, but was encoded independently from the current lower quality segment. The proposed decoder is capable of significantly improving the Quality of Experience of the user without incurring significant delays and overhead to the storage and computational complexities of both the encoder and the decoder, or loss of coding efficiency. We present simulation results using the HEVC reference encoder and standard test clips, and discuss areas of improvements to the algorithm.