Slab-based processing engine for motion video
Systems and methods of encoding a video signal that includes a succession of images are disclosed. A system may include a plurality of independently programmable processing elements (PEs), an input interface device adapted to receive, buffer, and divide the input video signal in a manner appropriate to the plurality of PEs, and an output interface device adapted to receive encoded bitstreams generated by the plurality of PEs and provide an encoded video signal. Each PE is configurable to carry out the steps of a selected encoding algorithm and includes a digital processor and a memory in communication with the digital processor. The memories are independently accessible, and PEs communicate with each another during the encoding.
1. A method of encoding a video signal that includes a succession of images, comprising the steps of:
separately encoding non-overlapping portions of an image in a video signal according to an encoding algorithm, wherein encoding of each portion of a current image in the video signal is based at least in part on data related to at least one other image portion of the current image; and
combining the encoded image portions into an encoded video signal representing the entire image;
wherein encoding an image portion includes receiving a first offset value determined from the encoding of a first neighbor image portion and providing a second offset value determined from encoding the image portion to the encoding of a second neighbor image portion.
2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising the step of conditioning each image by at least one of inverse telecine and color-type conversion.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the encoding algorithm is one of MPEG2, MPEG-4, Windows Media 9, VC9, and VC1.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the video signal is a high-resolution television signal and the encoding algorithm is one of MPEG-2, MPEG-4, Windows Media 9, VC9, and VC1.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of encoding begins for at least one image portion before beginning for other image portions.
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least some of the image portions have unequal sizes.
7. A method of encoding a video signal that includes a succession of images, comprising the steps of:
separately encoding non-overlapping portions of an image in a video signal according to an encoding algorithm, wherein encoding of each portion of a current image in the video signal is based at least in part on data related to at least one other image portion of the current image;
combining the encoded image portions into an encoded video signal representing the entire image; and
analyzing a complexity of an image and, based on the complexity analysis, (i) dividing the image into the separately encoded portions, and (ii) assigning at least one quantization level to each image portion, wherein at least one of the image portions is transformed and quantized based on a quantization level of at least one neighboring image portion.
8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the complexity of an image portion is based on a size and a quantization level of the image portion.
9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the complexity, size, and quantization level are linearly related.
10. The method of claim 8 , wherein the quantization level of the image portion is based on a quantization of a preceding corresponding image portion.
11. The method of claim 7 , wherein analyzing the complexity of the image includes dynamically allocating bits among image portions based on the complexity.
12. The method of claim 11 , wherein bits are dynamically allocated either by varying the sizes of image portions or by varying the quantization lever per macroblock of image portions.
13. The method of claim 7 , further comprising the step of determining a quality and a bit rate of the encoded video signal, wherein images are analyzed based on the quality and the bit rate.
14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the quality includes a number of bits and a quantization level used in encoding the image portions.
15. A method of encoding a video signal that includes a succession of images, comprising the steps of:
separately encoding non-overlapping portions of an image in a video signal according to an encoding algorithm, wherein encoding of each portion of a current image in the video signal is based at least in part on data related to at least one other image portion of the current image; and
combining the encoded image portions into an encoded video signal representing the entire image;
wherein an image portion is encoded by estimating motion in the image portion, transforming and quantizing the image portion, and encoding the respective transformed and quantized image portion based on necessary data of at least one neighbor image portion.
16. The method of claim 15 , wherein estimating motion in the image portion includes comparing the image portion of a current image with a reconstructed image portion of at least one temporally nearby image and using shared reconstructed image data from at least one neighboring image portion.
17. The method of claim 16 , further comprising the step of analyzing a complexity of an image, wherein transforming and quantizing an image portion includes using the respective image and information generated by the complexity analyzing step.
18. The method of claim 15 , wherein encoding a transformed and quantized image portion includes boundary processing based on the encoding of a neighbor image portion.
19. The method of claim 18 , wherein boundary processing includes receiving reconstructed image data of the neighbor image portion.
20. The method of claim 19 , wherein boundary processing includes receiving a number of bits consumed per image portion and a quantization value used by a preceding corresponding image portion.