Video Compression Systems: From first principles to concatenated codecs

This book gives an overview on many practical aspects of video compression systems used in broadcast TV, IPTV, telecommunication and many other video applications. Although the book concentrates on MPEG real-time video compression systems, many aspects are equally applicable to off-line and/or non-MPEG video compression applications. After a brief introduction to digital video and video compression principles, the book gives a detailed description of all currently used MPEG video compression algorithms. Apart from the compression algorithms themselves the book also covers pre and post processing functions which are often neglected in compression books, yet they are essential parts of today s state-of-the-art compression systems. Furthermore, the book covers a wide range of important compression topics, such as statistical multiplexing, bit rate changing, splicing and compression concatenation. It does that not just by a thorough description of the processes involved but also by posing direct practical questions and providing example answers, referring to the relevant chapters. It spans the entire range from low bit rate compression for mobile applications to high quality HDTV contribution and distribution systems emphasising the differences in configurations for such diverse applications. The main part of the book is intentionally written without mathematical equations to make it more readable and accessible to a wider audience. Instead, complicated processes, such as motion estimation in the frequency domain, are explained using figures and diagrams with accurate descriptions of the algorithms. However, mathematically minded engineers can still find relevant mathematical explanations in the appendix.