Low Delay MPEG 2 Video Encoding

High-quality and low-delay MPEG2 video coding can be achieved by avoiding the use of intra (I) and bidirectional prediction (B) pictures. Such coding requires intra macroblocks refreshing techniques for channel error propagation resilience and for compliance with the accuracy requirements of the MPEG2 standard. This project gives an overview of the MPEG technology, describes some of these low delay coding techniques and presents software simulation results of their performance in terms of image quality and their robustness to transmission channel errors. Trade-offs and comparisons among various coding strategies are analyzed. Based on the test sequence "Susie," it is shown that the simple low delay coding algorithm gives an overall visual quality acceptable to general viewers even at relatively low bit rate, desirable delay, and under severe transmission error environments. Thesis Supervisor: Andrew B. Lippman Title: Lecturer, Associate Director, MIT Media Laboratory To my parents and to Maria