Rate-distortion driven decoder-side bitplane mode decision for distributed video coding

Distributed video coding (DVC) features simple encoders but complex decoders which lies in contrast to conventional video compression solutions such as H 264/AVC This shift in complexity is realized by performing motion estimation at the decoder side instead of at the encoder which brings a number of problems that need to be dealt with One of these problems is that while employing different coding modes yields significant coding gains in classical video compression systems it is still difficult to fully exploit this in DVC without increasing the complexity at the encoder side Therefore in this paper instead of using an encoder side approach techniques for decoder side mode decision are proposed A rate-distortion model is derived that takes into account the position of the side information in the quantization bin This model is then used to perform mode decision at the coefficient level and bitplane level Average rate gains of 13-28% over the state of the art DISCOVER codec are reported for a GOP of size four for several test sequences (c) 2010 Elsevier B V All rights reserved