An Efficient Video Transcoding Algorithm Between H.263 and MPEG-4 for Inter-Network Communications

Video transcoding comprises the necessary operations for the conversion of a compressed video stream from one syntax to another one for inter-network communications, without the need of any further decoding and re-encoding process. The two most recent and popular video coders are H.263 and MPEG-4. As well as some similarities, there are a number of differences between MPEG-4 and the H.263 bitstream syntax. This paper presents an efficient algorithm for transcoding between MPEG-4 bitstream syntax and the H.263 bitstream syntax. This novel transcoding algorithm is proved to give highly improved service quality while reducing the complexity and time delay of conventional cascaded decoding/re-encoding process. KeywordsMPEG-4, H.263, Tanscoding, Inter-network communications.