Video Compression Techniques and Multilevel Approaches

Marzio Barbero, Mario Stroppiana

Digital compression techniques are applied to video signals to allow their transmission and distribution through a number of media to the viewer. Systems based on transform techniques have been developed for different applications: from videophone to transmission of TV and HDTV with contribution quality. A brief overview of the basic algorithms adopted for the compression is given: discrete cosine transform (DCT), subband coding, entropy coding, and motion evaluation and compensation. The importance of adopting suitable test material to evaluate the coding systems is discussed. In addition, the article mentions the issues presently debated in standardization groups and international projects: multilevel approaches, to provide various levels of resolution and quality for applications ranging from mobile video to HDTV, and the benefits that the adoption of progressive scanning formats could provide in terms of coding efficiency and picture quality.

Print ISSN
Published
1994-05
Content type
Original Research
DOI
10.5594/J02127