Video transcoding system with drastic scene change detection and method for use therewith

1. A system for transcoding a video signal into a transcoded video signal, the video signal including a sequence of images, the system comprising:

a hardware processing device configured to provide:

a drastic scene change detection module that operates as part of the hardware processing device to detect a drastic scene change in the sequence of images by generating a change in scene complexity based on a moving average of scene complexities corresponding to a plurality of images in the sequence of images, comparing a change in scene complexity to a scene complexity threshold, and detecting the drastic scene change when the change in scene complexity is greater than the scene complexity threshold; and

an transcoder section, coupled to the drastic scene change detection module, that operates as part of the hardware processing device to generate the transcoded video signal in a different compressed video format from a compressed video format of the video signal, wherein, when the drastic scene change is detected, a quality parameter of the different compressed video format is adjusted in at least one of the sequence of images in conjunction with encoding the at least one of the sequence of images in the different compressed video format.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the drastic scene change detection module generates the scene complexity based on at least one encoding parameter of the video signal.

3. The system of claim 2 wherein the at least one encoding parameter includes a number of bits used to encode at least one image of the sequence of images.

4. The system of claim 2 wherein the at least one encoding parameter includes an average variance of a plurality of macro blocks in at least one image of the sequence of images.

5. The system of claim 2 wherein the at least one encoding parameter includes a quantization step value.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein the drastic scene change detection module detects the drastic scene change based on only I-type images and P-type images of the sequence of images.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein when the drastic scene change detection module detects the drastic scene change in a P-type image of the sequence of images, the transcoder section converts the P-type image to an I-type image.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein the video signal is a MPEG-2 signal and the transcoded video signal is an AVC signal.

9. A method for transcoding a video signal into a transcoded video signal, the video signal including a sequence of images, the method comprising:

detecting a drastic scene change in the sequence of images via a video transcoder by generating a change in scene complexity based on a moving average of scene complexities corresponding to a plurality of images in the sequence of images, comparing a change in scene complexity to a scene complexity threshold, and detecting the drastic scene change when the change in scene complexity is greater than the scene complexity threshold; and

generating the transcoded video signal via the video transcoder in a different compressed video format from a compressed video format of the video signal, wherein, when the drastic scene change is detected, a quality parameter of the different compressed video format is adjusted in at least one of the sequence of images in conjunction with encoding the at least one of the sequence of images in the different compressed video format.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein detecting the drastic scene change in the sequence of images includes generating the scene complexity based on the at least one encoding parameter of the video signal.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the at least one encoding parameter includes a number of bits used to encode at least one image of the sequence of images.

12. The method of claim 10 wherein the at least one encoding parameter includes an average variance of a plurality of macro blocks in at least one image of the sequence of images.

13. The method of claim 10 wherein the at least one encoding parameter includes a quantization step value.

14. The method of claim 9 wherein the detecting the drastic scene change in the sequence of images includes detecting the drastic scene change based on only I-type images and P-type images of the sequence of images.

15. The method of claim 9 wherein the detecting the drastic scene change in the sequence of images includes detecting the drastic scene change in a P-type image of the sequence of images, and wherein generating the transcoded video signal includes converting the P-type image to an I-type image.

16. The method of claim 9 wherein the video signal is a MPEG-2 signal and the transcoded video signal is an AVC signal.