Content dependent intra-refresh placement for video streaming

Intra-refresh is an efficient error resiliency technique that protects against temporal error propagation resulting from transmission errors. Classic periodic intra-coded frames can add some protection and additionally facilitate random access, but within mobile networks with bandwidth constraints their disadvantages may outweigh their advantages. By analyzing the received video quality across a variety of video clips it becomes apparent that, for semi-active video sequences, cyclic intra-coded line placement results in superior video quality in the face of errors. For more active sequences, the quality gain is reduced but, for an equivalent constant bitrate, usually remains better than periodic intra-coded frames. This suggests a video streaming scheme which is content-dependent, turning on intra-refresh MB line when channel conditions and content type warrant it.