Rate-distortion optimised quantisation for HEVC using spatial just noticeable distortion

Due to the higher requirements associated with Ultra High Definition (UHD) resolutions in terms of memory and transmission bandwidth, the feasibility of UHD video communication applications is strongly dependent on the performance of video compression solutions. Even though the High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) standard allows significantly superior rate-distortion performances compared to previous video coding standards, further performance improvements are possible when exploiting the perceptual properties of the Human Visual System (HVS). This paper proposes a novel perceptual-based solution fully compliant with the HEVC standard, where a low complexity Just Noticeable Distortion model is used to drive the encoder’s rate-distortion optimised quantisation process. This technique allows a simple and effective way to influence the decisions made at the encoder, based on the limitations of the HVS. The experiments conducted for UHD resolutions show average bitrate savings of 21% with no visual quality degradations when compared to the HEVC reference software.