A novel linear source model and a unified rate control algorithm for H.263/MPEG-2/MPEG-4

Let be the percentage of zeros among the quantized transform coeÆcients. We discover that, in any typical video coding systems, there is always a strictly linear relationship between and the actual coding bit rate R. This linearity leads to a novel and uni ed source model for di erent types of source data and di erent coding systems, such as H.263 [1], MPEG-2 [2], and MPEG-4 [3]. The proposed linear source model is much simpler, but much more accurate than other source models reported in the literature. Based on this source model, a uni ed rate control algorithm is proposed for the above three video coding systems. Despite its extreme simplicity, the proposed algorithm outperforms other rate control algorithms by providing more accurate and robust rate control.