Fast MPEG-2 to H.264 intra-mode video transcoding scheme

Abstract

The MPEG-2 Video coding standard has been widely used in various multimedia applications. The simplicity and efficiency of this standard has lead to its global adoption in video distribution infrastructures, such as cable and satellite networks, as well as in consumer applications, such as DVD and DVR. The latest developments in compression techniques have resulted in mature new standards that offer significant bit rate gains of 30 percent to 50 percent over MPEG-2 video coding standard. H.264/AVC is the newest video coding standard jointly developed by the ITU-T Video Coding Experts Group and the ISO/IEC Moving Picture Experts Group. It provides better compression efficiency than previous video coding standards. For example, it will save 50% bits compared to MPEG-2. Because of its better compression performance, H.264/AVC is becoming more popular than its counterparts, thus it is taking the place of MPEG-2 Video. The coexistence of these two standards will definitely bring interoperability problems. Thus, the wide use of MPEG-2 video and the new adoption of H.264 create a need for tools and techniques for MPEG-2 to 11264 video transcoding.