Adaptive Frame-Level Quantization Parameter Adjustment Based on Human Visual System Characteristics in Video Coding
M. Kalantari
1
(
Dept. of Elec. Eng., Faculty of Engineering, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran
)
M. Khademi
2
(
Dept. of Elec. Eng., Faculty of Engineering, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran
)
A. Ebrahimi Moghadam
3
(
Dept. of Elec. Eng., Faculty of Engineering, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran
)
Keywords: Video Coding, Perceptual Video Coding, Quantization Parameter (QP), Just Noticeable Difference (JND), Hierarchical Temporal Structure, High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC).,
Abstract :
Video coding plays a key role in reducing data volume and optimizing the transmission and storage of multimedia content. In recent years, perceptual video coding has emerged as an effective approach for reducing bitrate without introducing perceptible visual degradation by exploiting characteristics of the HVS. In this paper, a perceptual method for adaptive adjustment of the quantization parameter in video coding with a hierarchical temporal structure is proposed. The proposed method employs a just noticeable difference model to estimate the perceptual sensitivity of each frame and adjusts the ΔQP according to content characteristics and temporal importance, such that frames with lower perceptual sensitivity are more strongly compressed while perceptually sensitive frames preserve their visual quality.
Experimental results on standard video sequences using the HEVC encoder show that the proposed method achieves an average bitrate reduction of 2.5% together with a 1.67% reduction in encoding time. In addition, subjective evaluation based on the MOS demonstrates an average improvement of 0.17 compared to the reference encoder, with equal or better visual quality achieved in most sequences. These results indicate that the proposed JND-based adaptive ΔQP strategy is an efficient, low-complexity, and HEVC-compatible solution for practical video coding applications.
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