Introduction to H.264 Video Standard Anurag Jain Texas Instruments

H.264 Background Jointly developed by ITU-T and MPEG. Upto 50% more efficient at the same virtual quality compared to MPEG-4 ASP Supports wide range of applications. (interlaced, progressive, low bit-rate, studio quality digital cinema etc). Multiple profiles (Baseline, Main, Extended, High, FRExt). Good results obtained from interoperability tests making it suitable for wide deployment in short span of time.

H.264 Encoder Block Diagram Intra Prediction Modes 9 4x4 & 4 16x16 modes = 13 modes Quantization step more resolution for finer control of bit rate Intra Inter _ Video Source Transform Bit Stream Out Quantized Transform Coefficients Motion Vectors + Predicted Frame Quantization Entropy Coding Motion Estimation Frame Store Motion Compensation Inverse Coding Control Loop Filter Intra Prediction [Single Universal VLC and Context Adaptive VLC] OR [Context-Based Adaptive Binary Arithmetic Coding] Seven block sizes and shapes Multiple reference picture selection 1/4-pel motion estimation accuracy Referenced B-frames Integer 16-bit fixed point transform with no mismatch

Common Elements Common elements with other standards Macroblocks: 16x16 luma + 2 x 8x8 chroma samples Input: association of luma and chroma and conventional block motion displacement Motion vectors over picture boundaries Block Transform Variable block-size motion I, P and B picture coding types

High Level Coding Tools Sequence and Picture Parameter Sets (SPS & PPS) Picture Order Count (POC) Decoded Picture Buffer (DPB) Slice group map (FMO) Multiple slices and arbitrary arrangements (ASO) Supplemental Enhancement Information (SEI) Hypothetical Reference Decoder (HRD) Video Usability Information (VUI)

High Level Tools: Coding Hierarchy A coded sequence contains one or more access units An access unit is a set of NAL units that contains all necessary information for decoding exactly one (primary) coded picture A coded picture is divided into Slices (VLC NAL units) A slice contains a slice header and a set of macroblocks A macroblock contains a 16x16 luma block and two chroma blocks An I-slice contains a set of INTRA-coded macroblocks A P-slice contains a set of INTRA- and INTER-coded macroblocks An IDR (instantaneous decoding refresh) picture contains only I-slices (SI-slices too in extended profile)

Sequence Parameter Set Profile @ Level indicator Profile constraint indicator Sequence parameter set ID (0..31) Picture order count type and infos DPB (Decode Picture Buffer) info Picture size Frame/field coding flag Method for vector derivation of B-direct mode Frame cropping parameters VUI_parameters (Annex E, Video usability information)

Picture Parameter Set Picture parameter ID (0..255) Sequence parameter ID (0..31) Entropy coding mode flag (CABAC/CAVLC) Slice POC info presence flag Slice group map parameters Max. number (1..16) of ref. frames used for decoding slices Weighted prediction flags Quantization scales (qp minus 26, range -26 ..+ 25) Chroma QP offset for loop-filter (-12 ..+12) Slice loop-filter control flag (Alpha/Beta table offsets) INTRA predication using pixels of INTER neighboring MBs? Slice redundant pic. parameters presence flag

Slice Header Starting macroblock address Slice type (I, P, B, SI, SP ) Temporal reference (frame_num) Picture parameter set ID (0..255) Interlaced frame/field coding, top/bottom field indicators IDR pictire ID (0,… 65536) Slice POC parameters Redundant picture count(0.. 127, 0 for baseline) B-slice temporal or spatial direct mode indicator Max. number (1..32) of ref. pictures for decoding current slice Reference picture reordering parameters (DPB) Weighted prediction parameters DPB marking parameters (e.g. short term, long term pred. Pics) Slice delta QP (-26 ..25) SP switch flag and SP/SI slice QP Loop-filter indicator (0: disabled, 1: enabled, 2: enabled but LP across slice Boundaries disabled) Loop-filter alpha/beta table access offset (-6, +6) Slice group change cycle (derives the No. of MBs in slice group 0)

Slice Group Maps For error resilience

Ordering of Slices within Slice Groups

Low Level Coding Tools Motion compensated prediction Additional intra modes for spatial compensation Transform: 4x4 Integer transform (Baseline, Main Profiles) Transform: 8x8 Integer transform (High Profile) Quantization: Scalar quantization Entropy Coding : CABAC / CAVLC In-loop deblocking filter

Enhanced MC (Inter Prediction) Every macroblock can be split in one of 7 ways for improved motion estimation Accuracy of motion compensation = 1/4 pixel Up to 5 reference frames for SDTV size @ L3 Weighted predictions Reference B pictures Trade off between accuracy and side information

B Slice - Direct Mode Direct mode Spatial Direct mode Forward / backward pair of bi-directional prediction Prediction signal is calculated by a linear combination of two blocks that are determined by the forward and backward motion vectors pointing to two reference pictures. Spatial Direct mode Temporal Direct mode mvL0 = tb  mvCol / td mvL1 = – (td – tb)  mvCol / td where mvCol is a MV used in the co-located MB of the subsequent picture

B Slice : Multi-picture Reference Mode Generalized Bidirectional prediction Multiple reference pictures mode Two forward references : proper for a region just before scene change Two backward references : proper for a region just after scene change traditional Bidirectional

4 modes for 16x16 intra prediction H.264 Intra Prediction 9 modes for 4x4 blocks 4 modes for 16x16 intra prediction

Luma Sub-Pixel Interpolation

Chroma Sub-pel Calculation If (vx, vy) is luma vector, then xFracc = vx&0x7, yFracc = vy&0x7

Block Scanning Order in a MB One more extraction of correlation among sub-blocks

Transform & Quant Integer 4x4 DCT approximation. 8x8 Cost of transformed differences (i.e. residual coefficients) for 4x4 block using 4 x 4 Hadamard-Transformation for INTRA_16x16 coded macroblocks. Scalar quantization. All integers! 4x4 Luma/Chroma AC 8x8 Luma-Chroma Hadamard

Interlaced Coding Deblocking filter Frame / Field Adaptation Picture Adaptive Frame Field (PicAFF). Macroblock Adaptive Frame Field (MBAFF) Field scan and zig-zag scan options Field Scan Zig-zag Frame Scan

Entropy Coding Universal Variable Length Coding (UVLC) using Exp-Golomb codes. Context Adaptive VLC (CAVLC) Context Adaptive Binary Arithmetic Coding (CABAC)

CAVLC Zigzag order: 50 33 27 20 0 5 0 0 1 -1 0 0 0 0 0 0 • TotalCoeff = 7 : # of non-zeros • Trailing 1s = 2 : 1, -1 • Sign Trail = 1 0 (reverse order) : minus, plus • Levels = 5 20 27 33 50 (reverse order) : 7 – 2 = 5 • TotalZeros = 3 (# of zeros) • RunsBefore = 0 2 1 : 0 before -1, 2 before 1, and 0’s before 5

Exp Golomb Coding

Loop filter Check if the boundary is original to picture or blocking effects

Profiles and Tools

H.264 Profiles and Tools: Graphical Representation

FRExt: Fidelity Range Extension Lossless representation Allows more than 8-bits per sample (upto 12-bits) Higher resolution for color representation (4:2:2, 4:4:4) Source editing function like alpha blending Very high bit-rates (often with constant quality) Very high-resolution Color space transformation (YCgCo, YCbCr, RGB) RGB color representation Adaptive block transform sizes Quantization matrices

Coding Efficiency

Comparision of Standards Feature/Standard MPEG-1 MPEG-2 MPEG-4 part 2 (visual) H.264/MPEG-4 part 10 Macroblock size 16x16 16x16 (frame mode) 16x8 (field mode) Block Size 8x8 16x16, 16x8, 8x8 16x16, 8x16, 16x8, 8x8, 4x8, 8x4, 4x4 Transform 8x8 DCT 8x8 DCT/Wavelet 4x4, 8x8 Int DCT 4x4, 2x2 Hadamard Quantization Scalar quantization with step size of constant increment Vector quantization Scalar quantization with step size of increase at the rate of 12.5% Entropy coding VLC VLC, CAVLC, CABAC Motion Estimation & Compensation Yes Yes, more flexible Up to 16 MVs per MB Playback & Random Access

Comparision of Standards (cont’d..) Feature/Standard MPEG-1 MPEG-2 MPEG-4 part 2 (visual) H.264/MPEG-4 part 10 Pel accuracy Integer, ½-pel Integer, ½-pel, ¼-pel Profiles No 5 8 3 Reference picture one multiple Bidirectional prediction mode forward/backward forward/forward backward/backward Picture Types I, P, B, D I, P, B I, P, B, SP, SI Error robustness Synchronization & concealment Data partitioning, FEC for important packet transmission Synchronization, Data partitioning, Header extension, Reversible VLCs Data partitioning, Parameter setting, Flexible macroblock ordering, Redundant slice, Switched slice Transmission rate Up to 1.5Mbps 2-15Mbps 64kbps - 2Mbps 64kbps -150Mbps Compatibility with previous standards n/a Yes Encoder complexity Low Medium High

References Related group Test software Test sequences MPEG website http://www.mpeg.org JVT website: ftp://ftp.imtc-files.org/jvt-experts www.mpegif.org Test software H.264/AVC JM Software: http://bs.hhi.de/~suehring/tml/download Test sequences http://ise.stanford.edu/video.html http://kbs.cs.tu-berlin.de/~stewe/vceg/sequences.htm http://www.its.bldrdoc.gov/vqeg ftp.tnt.uni-hannover.de/pub/jvt/sequences/ http://trace.eas.asu.edu/yuv/yuv.html

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