Interframe wavelet coding - motion picture representation for universal scalability

Scalability at the bitstream level is an important feature for encoded video that is to be transmitted and stored with a variety of target rates or to be replayed on devices with different capabilities and resolutions. This is attractive for digital cinema applications, where the same encoded source representation could seamlessly be used for purposes of archival and various distribution channels. Conventional high-performance video compression schemes are based on the method of motion-compensated prediction, using a recursive loop in the prediction process. Due to this recursion and the inherent drift in cases of deviation between encoder and decoder states, scalability is difficult to realize and typically effects a penalty in compression performance for prediction-based coders. The method of interframe wavelet coding overcomes this limitation by replacing the prediction along the time axis by a wavelet filter, which can nevertheless be operated in combination with motion compensation. Recent advances in motion-compensated temporal filtering (MCTF) have proven that combination with arbitrary motion compensation methods is possible. Compression performance is achieved that is comparable with state of the art single-layer coders targeting only for one rate. The paper provides an explanation of MCTF methods and the resulting 3D wavelet representation, and shows results obtained in the context of encoding digital cinema (DC) materials. r 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.