Perceived Video Streaming Quality under Initial Buffering and Rebuffering Degradations

The subjective quality of video streaming has been studied for typical mobile setups, where bad radio conditions give rise to buffering effects (initial buffering and rebuffering). The study included a variety of transport bit rates, frame rates, types of content and buffering/rebuffering conditions. The properties of interruptions having the greatest impact on the perceived quality were found to be the rebuffering length and the rebuffering frequency. If interruptions are unavoidable, a single rebuffering is better than repeated rebuffering events. Initial buffering is better tolerated by mobile users than rebuffering. Results from the study have been used for predicting video streaming quality.