Postprocessing MPEG based on estimated quantization parameters

Postprocessing of MPEG(-2) video is widely used to attenuate the coding artifacts, especially deblocking but also deringing have been addressed. The focus has been on filters where the decoder has access to the code stream and e.g. utilizes information about the quantization parameter. We consider the case where the coded stream is not accessible, or from an architectural point of view not desirable to use, and instead estimate some of the MPEG stream parameters based on the decoded sequence. The I-frames are detected and the quantization parameters are estimated from the coded stream and used in the postprocessing. We focus on deringing and present a scheme which aims at suppressing ringing artifacts, while maintaining the sharpness of the texture. The goal is to improve the visual quality, so perceptual blur and ringing metrics are used in addition to PSNR evaluation. The performance of the new `pure' postprocessing compares favorable to a reference postprocessing filter which has access to the quantization parameters not only for I-frames but also on P and B-frames.