Loss-distortion estimation for practical H.264/AVC streams

Even though several unequal erasure protection (UEP) schemes have been proposed for video streaming, it is still a challenge to define the optimal relative protection level for different data units. In this paper, we study loss-distortion modeling in realistic video streaming scenarios. The main observation is that when video streams with complex hierarchical structures and error resilience features are considered, the relative significance of different units cannot be reliably estimated from mutual dependencies between units as suggested in related research. Therefore, data units can be classified reliably into different perceptual priority classes via analysis by synthesis only. For estimating the co-impact of multiple losses, we propose a simple loss-distortion model. The model can be used for optimizing UEP in practical streaming systems.