Performance evaluation of MPEG-2 video coding for HDTV

We examine the subjective and objective performance of HDTV coded using the MPEG-2 video coding standard. Tests were conducted on seven HDTV sequences selected to cover a broad range of program materials in terms of scene content, complexity, motion speed and direction. The selected material was digitized in a 4:2:2 format with HDTV resolution and coded using the MPEG-2 main profile/high level syntax. Formal subjective assessment was performed by non-expert viewers on the sequences coded at a bit rate of 18 Mbits/s. Since MPEG-2 allows a great flexibility at the encoding end, we also examined the impact of various MPEG-2 encoding parameters on the quality of the reconstructed HDTV video sequences. The parameters include bit rate, the structure of picture organization, as well as temporal processing.