在壓縮視訊資料時，我們通常會將一連串的原始視訊資料分割成一般由10到20個畫面構成的GOP (Groups-of-Pictures)結構，再對每個GOP進行intra-frame以及inter-frame壓縮，通常一個GOP中會包含一個I-Frame (Intra Frame)以及若干個P-Frame (Predicted Frame)，而整個GOP架構則類似一個以I-Frame為root的skew tree。在本篇論文中，我們探討如何在視訊壓縮時，利用階層式的GOP結構來提高對串流視訊系統中各類應用的支援。首先，我們提出使用階層式二元樹GOP結構取代一般線性GOP結構來降低進入快轉模式時的頻寬消耗需求之構想。對於一個包含n個畫面的線性GOP結構而言，任意顯示其中一個畫面平均需要傳送(n+1)/2個畫面的資料，但是對於二元樹GOP結構而言只需傳送約log2(n+1)-1個畫面的資料即可，因此使用二元樹GOP結構可有效降低快轉時需要傳送的畫面數量。我們並利用人類視覺系統對於快速變化畫面中的細微改變較不敏感的特性提出可進一步降低傳送的畫面數量的proximity approximation方法。實驗結果顯示我們的方法在任何快轉倍數下無論在傳送的畫面數量及頻寬需求上都低於線性GOP結構，而在PSNR部份則沒有明顯的差距。在本論文的第二部份，我們提出使用double binary tree GOP結構來提高對error resilience支援的構想。對一個包含15個畫面的線性GOP而言，一個P-Frame的損害平均會影響6.5個P-Frame的解碼，但是如果使用double binary tree GOP結構，平均只會影響0.86個P-Frame的解碼。我們的方法非常適用於當傳輸錯誤發生時，利用pixel interpolation或是motion interpolation來補救損失畫面。實驗結果顯示，對於任何損失率而言，我們的方法在視覺效果上比線性GOP結構都要高出0.5~3.0 dB。

In this thesis, we present two hierarchical GOP (Groups-of-Pictures) coding schemes for supporting VCR-like functions and error resilience in video streaming systems. For supporting VCR-like functions, our approach is based upon reshaping the ordinary linear encoded GOP structure into a hierarchical binary tree encoded GOP structure to reduce the transmission overhead caused by frame dependencies. The resulted video streaming system can immediately provide all directions video playback with any speed-up factor. We additionally propose a proximity-based approximation playback scheme along with a modified depth first search (MDFS) algorithm that can further reduce the bandwidth requirements for performing fast playback operations without causing visual quality degradations evidently. For supporting error resilience, we reorganize the regular linear GOP structure into a hierarchical double-binary tree. The proposed scheme can effectively recover a lost frame and prevent error propagation phenomenon. For a single frame loss, we guarantee that both of its next and previous frames still can be successfully decoded, thus we have sufficient temporal and spatial information to reconstruct the damaged frame. Our new coding structure even can recover the successive lost frames. The experimental result showed that the video quality has a graceful degradation when the loss rate increases rapidly. Comparing with the conventional GOP, PSNR values can be improved from 0.5 dB to 3 dB. A set-top box architecture that supports the hierarchical GOP structured video streams playback is also described in this thesis.

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