A perceptually efficient VBR rate control algorithm

Abstract

This paper describes a rate control algorithm for a variable bit-rate (VBR) video coder. The algorithm described varies the quantizer step size of the coder according to properties of an image sequence that affect the perception of errors. The algorithm also limits the output bit-rate of the coder without the use of buffers to more efficiently use network bandwidth. It is shown that a VBR encoder using this algorithm will provide decoded image sequences with a consistent perceived quality that is comparable with, or better than, the perceived quality of images coded with a CBR encoder.