MPEG Verification Test for SVC

The verification test was carried out to measure the performance of the new Scalable Video Coding (SVC) amendment of ITU-T Recommendation H.264 & ISO/IEC 14496-10 Advanced Video Coding (H.264/AVC). The test was conducted using conditions suitable for a range of possible application scenarios, including conversational services, mobile broadcast, high definition broadcast, and movie production.

For the performance evaluations, SVC was compared against single layer coding (transmitting exactly one resolution and bit rate) with H.264/AVC by means of subjective testing. Subjective tests were performed following relevant international recommendations using a controlled environment and a high number of test subjects. Detailed information about the subjective test procedure can be found in the MPEG document N9577.

The results of the verification tests indicate that the tested types of scalability for the investigated application scenarios can be achieved with a bit rate overhead typically equal to or less than 10% compared to H.264/AVC single layer coding for each resolution and bit rate included in a scalable bit stream. The bit rate savings obtained by SVC compared to H.264/AVC simulcast (simultaneous transmission of all resolutions and bit rates using single layer H.264/AVC coding) depend on the particular test case, and were found to be between 17% and 40% of the simulcast bit rate.

The verification test included the following test scenarios (follow the links for more detailed information including test bit streams, test sequences, encoding, and decoding scripts):

• Mobile Broadcast with Quality Scalability
• Mobile Broadcast with Spatial Scalability
• Conversational Applications with Quality Scalability
• Conversational Applications with Spatial Scalability
• High Definition Broadcast with Spatial Scalability
• Professional Manipulation with Dyadic Spatial Scalability
• Professional Manipulation with Non-Dyadic Spatial Scalability