Design and implementation of a high quality DV50-MPEG2 software transcoder

This paper describes the design and implementation of a high quality DCT-domain DV50 to MPEG2 (I only) real-time software transcoder. Such a transcoder facilitates the interoperability between the two video compression standards, widely adopted by both consumers and broadcasters. There are multiple challenges in implementing such a software-based real-time high quality transcoder, given the high data rates involved and the differences between the two compression formats in terms of code block structures and DCT formats. We outline several new video transcoding algorithms, including a novel parameter-based VLC bit count prediction algorithm that greatly improves the efficiency of DV transcoding/encoding.