Perceptually-Driven Video Coding with the Daala Video Codec

TL;DR

This paper discusses the development of the Daala video codec, focusing on perceptually-driven tools and their integration challenges, aiming to create a royalty-free alternative that competes with patent-encumbered codecs.

Contribution

It introduces perceptually-oriented tools for video coding and evaluates their effectiveness and integration into a traditional codec framework.

Findings

Some tools improved perceptual quality without increasing bitrate

Certain tools were difficult to integrate into traditional codecs

The approach shows promise for royalty-free video coding

Abstract

The Daala project is a royalty-free video codec that attempts to compete with the best patent-encumbered codecs. Part of our strategy is to replace core tools of traditional video codecs with alternative approaches, many of them designed to take perceptual aspects into account, rather than optimizing for simple metrics like PSNR. This paper documents some of our experiences with these tools, which ones worked and which did not. We evaluate which tools are easy to integrate into a more traditional codec design, and show results in the context of the codec being developed by the Alliance for Open Media.