Overview of the H.

264/AVC
video coding standard

History and Naming

Goal of The Standard

Deploy over existing & future networks in
these areas with substantially low bitrate:

Broadcast
Interactive or serial storage
Conversational services
Video-on-demand or multimedia streaming services
Multimedia messaging services

Flexibility and Customizability:

Comparison: PSNR

H.264 improves the coding efficiency over other

coding methods

Design Feature Highlights

Enhancements of coding efficiency
Better prediction

Variable block-size motion compensation with small block sizes

Quarter-sample-accurate motion compensation
Multiple reference picture motion compensation
Weighted prediction

Other factors
Hierarchical block transform
Short word-length transform

Enhancements of robustness and flexibility

for operation over a variety of networks

Structure of H.264 Video Encoder

Network Abstraction Layer

Facilitates the ability to map H.264 VCL data
to transport layers such as RTP/IP, H.32x,
MPEG-2.
NAL Units
VCL and non-VCL units
Parameter sets
Access units
Coded video sequence

NAL: Parameter Sets

VCL: Revolution or Evolution?

There is no single coding element in the VCL that
provides the majority of the significant improvement
in compression efficiency in relation to prior video
coding standards.
It is rather a plurality of smaller improvements that
add up to the significant gain.
The basic source-coding algorithm is a hybrid of
inter-picture prediction to exploit temporal
statistical dependencies and transform coding of
the prediction residual to exploit spatial statistical
dependencies.

VCL: Elements
Pictures, Frames, Fields
Macroblocks (MBs)(16x16)
Slices, Slices Groups

VCL: Coding the Slices

Each slice can be coded using different coding
types as follows:
I slice: A slice in which all macroblocks of the slice are coded using intra
prediction.
P slice: In addition to the coding types of the I slice, some macroblocks
of the P slice can also be coded using inter prediction with at most one
motion-compensated prediction signal per prediction block.
B slice: In addition to the coding types available in a P slice, some
macroblocks of the B slice can also be coded
SP slice (switching P slice): coded such that efficient switching between
different pre-coded pictures becomes possible.
SI slice (switching I slice): allows an exact match of a macroblock in an
SP slice for random access and error recovery purposes.

Peek into Encoder

Adaptive Frame/Field Coding

3 choices:
To combine the two fields together and to code them
as one single coded frame (frame mode).
To not combine the two fields and to code them as
separate coded fields (field mode).
To combine the two fields together and compress
them as a single frame, but when coding the frame to
split the pairs of two vertically adjacent macroblocks
into either pairs of two field macroblocks or frame
macroblocks before coding them.

Adaptive Frame/Field Coding

PAFF (Picture-Adaptive Frame/Field)
The choice between first 2
>16% better than field only in general

MBAFF (MacroBlock-Adaptive Frame/Field )

Non-moving: frame mode, moving: field mode
Use a pair of MBs (16x32 luma)
>14% better than PAFF in general

Intra-Frame Prediction
3 modes: Intra_4x4, Intra_16x16 (with chroma
prediction) and I_PCM

Constrained intra coding mode: prediction only from intra-coded

neighboring MBs

Inter-Frame Prediction
Full sample, half sample, one-quarter
sample
Half: apply one-dimensional 6-tap FIR filter
One-quarter: average full and half

Results:
Accurate motion representation
More flexibility in prediction filtering
Different degrees of low pass filtering could be
chosen
better preserving hi-frequency content.

Transform, Scaling and Quantization

4x4 Integer transform vs. 8x8 DCT
No mismatch in inverse transform
Less computations, short processing wordlength
Less noise

52 quantization values; step size: 12%

one step means 12% bit rate change
6 steps: factor of 2

Entropy Coding
CAVLC (Context-Adaptive Variable Length
Coding)
VLC tables for various syntax elements are switched depending
on already transmitted syntax elements.
Since the VLC tables are designed to match the corresponding
conditioned statistics, performance is improved in comparison to
schemes using a single VLC table.

CABAC (Context-Adaptive Binary Arithmetic

Coding)
allows the assignment of a noninteger number of bits to each
symbol of an alphabet
permits adaptation to nonstationary symbol statistics
uses only shifts and table look-ups
Compared to CAVLC, typically provides a reduction in bit rate
5%15%

In-Loop Deblocking Filter

Goal: reduce blockiness and maintain sharpness

Profiles and Levels

Profiles: Facilitate interoperability between
various applications.
Defines a set of coding tools or algorithms that can be used in
generating a conforming bitstream
Incl. Baseline, Main, Extended, High(4)

Levels: place constraints on certain key

parameters of the bitstream
Correspond to processing power and memory capability of a
codec
Set limts for data bitrate, framesize, pic buffer size. Eg. QCIF,
ITU-R601, HDTV etc.
Universal (15) used in different profile

Profiles: Coding Features

Computation Consumption
Use large amount of computation to achieve
high quality, reliability and compression ratio

Intra/inter frame prediction: ~60%

Integer transform: ~10%
Error resilience: ~20%
De-blocking filter: ~10%

Encoding: ~10x of MPEG-2s CPU usage

For current home PC users, realtime software
decoding (HDTV quality) could be achieved,
but not encoding
Recommend software:
QuickTime Alternative (www.free-codecs.com)
X264 (www.video-lan.org/x264.html)

Licensing
Standard: no free lunch
Lessons from MPEG-4 Visual
Was not friendly at the beginning

H.264
Codec manufactures pay for the consumer
use by/between end users
Cheap for free television provider
Free internet broadcast till 2010.12.31

Applications
HD DVD Video (DVDForum); Blu-ray Disk
(BDA) (High Profiles: mandatory)
DVB in Europe, DMB in Korea, ISDB-T in
Japan
Direct broadcast satellite TV (multi-region)
3GPP (optional feature)
IETF: RFC3984 for RTP
ITU-T: H.32x (in production)
VoD