Convex-hull Estimation using XPSNR for Versatile Video Coding

TL;DR

This paper proposes using XPSNR as a perceptual quality metric for VVC, demonstrating its superior correlation with subjective quality and showing improvements in quality, encoding, and decoding times over traditional metrics.

Contribution

It introduces a convex-hull estimation method using XPSNR for optimized bitrate-resolution selection in VVC, enhancing streaming efficiency and perceptual quality.

Findings

XPSNR correlates better with subjective quality than VMAF for UHD VVC content.

The proposed convex-hull method improves quality by 5.84 dB PSNR and 0.62 dB XPSNR.

Encoding and decoding times are reduced by 44.43% and 65.46%, respectively.

Abstract

As adaptive streaming becomes crucial for delivering high-quality video content across diverse network conditions, accurate metrics to assess perceptual quality are essential. This paper explores using the eXtended Peak Signal-to-Noise Ratio (XPSNR) metric as an alternative to the popular Video Multimethod Assessment Fusion (VMAF) metric for determining optimized bitrate-resolution pairs in the context of Versatile Video Coding (VVC). Our study is rooted in the observation that XPSNR shows a superior correlation with subjective quality scores for VVC-coded Ultra-High Definition (UHD) content compared to VMAF. We predict the average XPSNR of VVC-coded bitstreams using spatiotemporal complexity features of the video and the target encoding configuration and then determine the convex-hull online. On average, the proposed convex-hull using XPSNR (VEXUS) achieves an overall quality improvement of 5.84 dB PSNR and 0.62 dB XPSNR while maintaining the same bitrate, compared to the default UHD encoding using the VVenC encoder, accompanied by an encoding time reduction of 44.43% and a decoding time reduction of 65.46%. This shift towards XPSNR as a guiding metric shall enhance the effectiveness of adaptive streaming algorithms, ensuring an optimal balance between bitrate efficiency and perceptual fidelity with advanced video coding standards.