<title>Optimal delayed-coding of video sequences subject to a buffer-size constraint</title>

Abstract

A video encoder has the task of producing lowest-distortion coded video subject to some constraints on delay, rate, and buffer conditions. We present a general optimization approach to this problem in a framework of delayed coding and we motivate a certain formulation of the optimization objective. Two forms of distortion measures are considered, namely, the maximum distortion and the total distortion, each defined over a segment of the video to be coded. These distortion measures are chosen for their mathematical tractability and practical importance. A solution (computational algorithm) for each case is described. Subject to some conditions, the solutions may be suboptimal. Simulation results show an improved performance with this approach compared to a simple typical approach which varies the quantization scale linearly with the encoder buffer level.