Zero latency movie encoding and decoding for time-critical applications, EE Times

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H.264 "zero" latency movie encoding and decoding for time-critical applications

Early digital movie compression solutions primarily focused on applications that do not require real-time interaction, such as in TV broadcast, video-on-demand and DVD playback. In these applications the latency inbetween the source and the decoded movie is not significant and can lightly extend to several seconds. However, in applications where there is a closed feedback loop, such as movie conference and videophone, latency is the most crucial aspect of the system, as it determines whether the system will be stable or not. Keeping the latency of a movie codec in such systems as minimal as possible is the decent treatment. In many such applications latency measured in sub ten milliseconds is crucial and it takes a radically different treatment from traditional ones to achieve a low latency implementation of the popular H.264/MPEG-4 AVC (Part Ten) movie coding standard.

Latency and zero latency defined

Simply put, movie codec latency is defined here as the time lapse inbetween the very first pixel of movie appearing in the source and the very first pixel of decoded movie appearing at the destination. Latency-sensitive movie applications require that the time lapse inbetween source and decoded movie is utterly puny. How puny depends on the application, but as a guideline, keeping latency down to sub 10ms is a good idea. For convenience we will call such low latency "zero" latency. This is in contrast with the orders of magnitude higher latency found in non latency-sensitive applications.

Figure 1: Latency inbetween source and decoded movie

Latency sensitive movie codec applications

In movie conferencing and movie telephony, noticeable delay makes a conversation unlikely, unless a "walky-talky" like protocol is stringently followed. This makes the conversation unnatural and cumbersome. In these applications sub 33ms latency for the movie codec is required.

Figure Two: Implications of latency in movie conferencing

Next: Home networks, other latency sensitive movie codec applications, unexpected benefits

Zero latency movie encoding and decoding for time-critical applications, EE Times

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H.264 "zero" latency movie encoding and decoding for time-critical applications

Early digital movie compression solutions primarily focused on applications that do not require real-time interaction, such as in TV broadcast, video-on-demand and DVD playback. In these applications the latency inbetween the source and the decoded movie is not significant and can lightly extend to several seconds. However, in applications where there is a closed feedback loop, such as movie conference and videophone, latency is the most crucial aspect of the system, as it determines whether the system will be stable or not. Keeping the latency of a movie codec in such systems as minimal as possible is the decent treatment. In many such applications latency measured in sub ten milliseconds is crucial and it takes a radically different treatment from traditional ones to achieve a low latency implementation of the popular H.264/MPEG-4 AVC (Part Ten) movie coding standard.

Latency and zero latency defined

Simply put, movie codec latency is defined here as the time lapse inbetween the very first pixel of movie appearing in the source and the very first pixel of decoded movie appearing at the destination. Latency-sensitive movie applications require that the time lapse inbetween source and decoded movie is utterly puny. How petite depends on the application, but as a guideline, keeping latency down to sub 10ms is a good idea. For convenience we will call such low latency "zero" latency. This is in contrast with the orders of magnitude higher latency found in non latency-sensitive applications.

Figure 1: Latency inbetween source and decoded movie

Latency sensitive movie codec applications

In movie conferencing and movie telephony, noticeable delay makes a conversation unlikely, unless a "walky-talky" like protocol is stringently followed. This makes the conversation unnatural and cumbersome. In these applications sub 33ms latency for the movie codec is required.

Figure Two: Implications of latency in movie conferencing

Next: Home networks, other latency sensitive movie codec applications, unexpected benefits

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