Multiple Description Video Transcoding

Abstract — In this paper we introduce the concept of multiple description video transcoding (MDVT). MDVT converts a single description encoded video into two or more descriptions at an intermediate node in the network. The objective of our MDVT approach is to adapt the video transmission to a multi-radio environment where two or more independent transmission paths exist between the intermediate node and the receiver. The sender does not have to be aware of the transcoding process and the multi-path transmission. MDVT can for instance be applied for multi-mode terminals that are simultaneously connected to two wireless access technologies, e.g., UMTS and WLAN. We compare MDVT with multiple description coding at the sender (MDC-S) as well as with MDC at the intermediate node (MDC-I) where the incoming single description video is decoded and re-encoded into multiple descriptions and the transmission is optimized separately for each path. We present a fast greedy method that can be used to perform multiple description video transcoding in real-time at low complexity. Our experimental results show that we can achieve performance similar to MDC-S where the sender has to be aware of the availability of multiple paths. Compared to MDC-I we observe more than 2 dB gain in reconstruction quality. Index Terms—Video transcoding, multiple description video coding, forward error correction. I