Transrating by frequencies selectivity for H.264/AVC intra pictures

This paper presents the results obtained in the framework of the first part of the French ANR TOSCANE project. This project aims at developing efficient solutions for adaptation of video contents to be delivered over audiovisual networks. We present here a complete transrating scheme for incoming H.264/AVC compressed video bitstreams. The proposed solution is based on frequency selective filtering and has the main advantage to be drift-error free. Experimental results show that the algorithm gives satisfying results in terms of visual quality compared to conventional transrating methods. It has been validated using the JM reference software and then implemented into a dedicated FPGA architecture. The use of the scalable extension of the H.264/AVC standard is finally considered as the following part of the project.