Evaluation method of degradation in image quality of color motion pictures due to H.264/AVC codec

Abstract

In codec of motion pictures a good measure for evaluating the image quality including the color reproduction is strongly desired to determine a proper compression rate. In this article, we focus on the image quality of motion pictures compressed by H.264/AVC codec which is receiving increased attention. At first, S-CIELAB color difference calculation was applied to the frames of motion pictures after H.264/AVC codec. The performance was better than CIELAB color difference but not satisfactory. We then limited the region of calculation of CIELAB color difference to the smooth regions where compression error tends to attract attention of observers. Experimental results showing that the modification is promising were obtained.