Coding Video: A Practical Guide to HEVC and Beyond

A fully up-to-date guide to transformative consumer technologies Video compression – or video coding – has been at the centre of a revolution in the way video is produced, delivered, and consumed. It has made the switch from analogue to digital video possible and has enabled fundamental shifts in the way we now watch video. New video compression standards, together with adaptive streaming protocols, are used to deliver high-quality video to homes and workplaces around the world. Coding Video provides a practical and comprehensive guide to the new landscape of video coding and video streaming. This book explains the core technologies with a wealth of practical examples and illustrations, covers key standards such as H.265/HEVC and includes an introduction to the new H.266/VVC standard. Coding Video will appeal to engineers, application developers, product designers and digital video professionals, as well as to graduate students and researchers in Engineering, Computer Science and related subjects.

Table of Contents:
About the Author xvii Acknowledgements xix About the Companion Website xxi 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Why Write This Book? 1 1.2 What Is in the Book? 2 1.3 How Should You Use This Book? 3 References 4 2 Video Coding and Video Quality 5 2.1 Introduction 5 2.2 An Overview of Video Coding 6 2.3 Inputs and Outputs 9 2.4 Structural Elements 15 2.5 Prediction 17 2.6 Transform and Quantisation 25 2.7 Bitstream Coding 27 2.8 The Coded Bitstream 30 2.9 Storing and Transmitting the Coded Bitstream 30 2.10 The Decoder 32 2.11 The Video Codec Model 33 2.12 Video Codec Performance 35 2.13 Conclusion 40 References 41 3 A History of Video Coding and Video Coding Standards 43 3.1 Introduction 43 3.2 The Foundations of Video Coding, 1950–1990 44 3.3 Video Coding Standards and Formats: 1990–2021 53 3.4 Comparing Video Coding Standards 65 3.5 Conclusions 66 References 66 4 Structures 69 4.1 Introduction 69 4.2 Coded Video: Sequence to Picture 72 4.3 Coded Video: Picture to Basic Unit 75 4.4 Coded Video: Basic Unit to Block 80 4.5 HEVC Coding Structures 82 4.6 Structures in Versatile Video Coding/H. 266 111 4.7 Conclusion 114 Reference 114 5 Intra Prediction 115 5.1 Introduction 115 5.2 The Intra Prediction Process 118 5.3 Intra Prediction Modes 118 5.4 Prediction Block Sizes 126 5.5 Signalling Intra Prediction Choices 128 5.6 Choosing a Prediction 129 5.7 HEVC Intra Prediction 130 5.8 VVC Intra Prediction 139 5.9 Conclusions 144 References 144 6 Inter Prediction 145 6.1 Introduction 145 6.2 Inter Prediction – the Basics 146 6.3 Forward, Backward and Biprediction 155 6.4 Inter Prediction Block Sizes 159 6.5 Motion Vectors 162 6.6 Sub-Pixel Interpolation 167 6.7 Reference Pictures 176 6.8 Signalling Inter Prediction Choices 186 6.9 Skip Mode 192 6.10 Loop Filter 193 6.11 When Inter Prediction Does Not Find a Good Match 194 6.12 HEVC Inter Prediction 197 6.13 Inter Prediction in VVC 219 6.14 Conclusions 222 References 222 7 Transform and Quantisation 223 7.1 Introduction 223 7.2 Residual Blocks 226 7.3 Block Transforms 228 7.4 Quantisation 246 7.5 Transform and Quantisation in Practice 253 7.6 HEVC Transform and Quantisation 254 7.7 Transform and Quantise in H.266 Versatile Video Coding 272 7.8 Conclusions 273 References 273 8 Entropy Coding 275 8.1 Introduction 275 8.2 Entropy Coding for Video Compression 278 8.3 Pre-processing 283 8.4 Probability Models and Context Adaptation 285 8.5 Variable-Length Coding 286 8.6 Arithmetic Coding 291 8.7 Binary Arithmetic Coding 294 8.8 Context-Adaptive Binary Arithmetic Coding (CABAC) 309 8.9 Entropy Coding in HEVC 314 8.10 Entropy Coding in H.266/VVC 334 8.11 Conclusion 334 References 335 9 Coded Video Filtering 337 9.1 Introduction 337 9.2 Filtering and Video Coding 339 9.3 Detecting and Correcting Video Coding Artefacts 341 9.4 HEVC In-Loop Filtering 347 9.5 VVC Filtering 354 9.6 Conclusions 355 References 355 10 Storing and Transporting Coded Video 357 10.1 Introduction 357 10.2 Storing and Delivering Coded Video 359 10.3 Coded Video File Formats 361 10.4 Transport of Coded Video 365 10.5 Video Rate Control 374 10.6 Error Handling 379 10.7 Conclusions 381 References 382 11 Implementation and Performance 383 11.1 Introduction 383 11.2 Implementing Video Codecs 384 11.3 Software Implementation 384 11.4 Hardware Implementation 388 11.5 Video Codec Performance 390 11.6 Getting Started with Experiments 397 11.7 Conclusion 405 References 405 12 Conclusions 407 12.1 What This Book Has and Has Not Covered 407 12.2 Where Is Video Coding Going Next? 408 12.3 Where Should You Go Next? 409 References 409 Glossary 411 Index 415