Efficient coding of 360{\deg} videos exploiting inactive regions in projection formats

TL;DR

This paper introduces a method to improve 360-degree video encoding efficiency by exploiting inactive regions, leading to significant bitrate savings without quality loss.

Contribution

It proposes a novel approach that leverages inactive regions in projection formats to optimize encoding processes in 360° videos.

Findings

Achieves up to 10% bitrate savings

Neglects inactive regions in optimization processes

Maintains video quality while reducing bitrate

Abstract

This paper presents an efficient method for encoding common projection formats in 360$^\circ$ video coding, in which we exploit inactive regions. These regions are ignored in the reconstruction of the equirectangular format or the viewport in virtual reality applications. As the content of these pixels is irrelevant, we neglect the corresponding pixel values in ratedistortion optimization, residual transformation, as well as inloop filtering and achieve bitrate savings of up to 10%.