Noise Reduction Preprocessing for MPEG-2 Encoding

In the real world, all video content contains some noise. Even modern facilities equipped with the latest digital production equipment will inevitably import some noisy content. Content such as archive material, film, and news feeds are likely to contain high levels of noise. Noise reduction (NR) and filtering can substantially improve the image quality received by the viewer if the appropriate techniques are gracefully applied to remove the noise prior to compression. Selectively removing noise is a challenge because the noise shares the same bandwidth as valuable picture detail. An ideal noise reduction process will allow suppression of all types of noise while preserving clean video content. An advanced noise reduction system will use sophisticated techniques that offer powerful abilities to remove noise without introducing side effects such as motion blur or ghosting. — Harmonic introduced its latest MPEG-2 encoder at NAB 2001, which features third generation embedded advanced noise reduction capabilities. The architecture is unusual for MPEG-2 encoders, so the design background is discussed in some detail. This encoder has permitted users to push encoding rates for video below 2 Mbps with good results.

Published

2002-02

Content type

Original Research

DOI

10.5594/M00225

ISBN

978-1-61482-936-2