Scalable Video Adaptation for IPTV

IPTV based on full-duplex networks potentially provides much richer media experiences than traditional TV. However, video contents compressed with non-scalable coding schemes greatly constrain the potential. This paper proposes a new IPTV architecture, which fully takes the advantages of scalable video for adaptation to both networks and devices. Firstly, network adaptation is mainly performed in scalable IPTV servers. An algorithm is proposed to optimally allocate available bandwidth between different frames and different channels, considering the dependency, weighting factors and rate-distortion data of scalable layered streams. Secondly, home gateway provides device adaptation, which is accomplished by reshaping the received scalable video. Considering the existing set-top boxes equipped with hardware decoder, we also propose a fast and effective algorithm to convert a scalable video to a non-scalable one in the home gateway.