IP Library Granted Patent US 9,363,522
Granted Patent B2
US 9,363,522 · App. 13/096,405 · Granted Jun 7, 2016

Region-of-interest encoding enhancements for variable-bitrate mezzanine compression

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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 9,363,522
App. No.
13/096,405
Granted
Jun 7, 2016
Kind
B2
Abstract

A specification defining allowable luma and chroma code-values is applied in a region-of-interest encoding method of a mezzanine compression process. The method may include analyzing an input image to determine regions or areas within each image frame that contain code-values that are near allowable limits as specified by the specification. In addition, the region-of-interest method may comprise then compressing those regions with higher precision than the other regions of the image that do not have code-values that are close to the legal limits.

Claims (41)

1. A method comprising:

reading raw video data from a computer-readable medium;

analyzing an input image comprising a frame of the raw video data, wherein the analyzing includes identifying pixels with code-values within a first defined non-zero number of luma code-values or a second defined non-zero number of chroma code-values of allowable limits according to a color space specification and within the allowable limits, using a computer;

defining at least one region-of-interest within the input image based on containing the pixels having the code-values identified by the analyzing the input image, wherein defining the at least one region-of-interest includes creating a binary data file comprising bits corresponding to respective pixels of the input image;

setting the bits of the binary data file in response to said analyzing, wherein each of the bits indicates whether or not a corresponding pixel of the input image is within the first defined non-zero number of luma code-values or the second defined non-zero number of chroma code-values of the allowable limits according to the color space specification and within the allowable limits;

encoding the input image with higher precision in areas corresponding to the defined region-of-interest than in areas not corresponding to the defined region-of-interest using a compression method to provide compressed image data;

repeating the analyzing, defining, and encoding on successive frames of the video data, wherein the frames are converted into mezzanine compressed video data; and

providing, in a computer-readable medium, an intermediate electronic master file comprising the mezzanine compressed video data.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the compression method comprises wavelet-based compression.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the compression method is selected from JPEG 2000 and H.264.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising capturing the input image comprising a resolution of a least 1920×1080, 10 bits per pixel, as a frame of a video image.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein analyzing the input image comprises designating luma (Y′) code-values as within the first defined non-zero number of luma code-values of the allowable limits only if the luma code-values are within at least 12 units of the allowable limits for luma code-values according to the color space specification.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein analyzing the input image comprises designating chroma (Cb/Cr) code-values as within the second defined non-zero number of luma code-values of the allowable limits only if the chroma code-values are within at least 4 units of the allowable limits for the chroma code-values according to the color space specification.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein encoding the input image further comprises selectively increasing distortion reduction for all coding passes within code-blocks contained within the region-of-interest by a factor that is greater than 1.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein encoding the input image further comprises determining a threshold for distortion-length slope to meet a defined rate-control requirement, and selectively including coding passes that have a distortion-length slope greater than the determined distortion-length slope threshold to comprise the encoding.

9. An apparatus comprising a processor coupled to a memory, the memory holding instructions for execution by the processor causing the apparatus to perform:

reading raw video data from a computer-readable medium;

analyzing an input image comprising a frame of the raw video data, wherein the analyzing includes identifying pixels with code-values within a first defined non-zero number of luma code-values or a second defined non-zero number of chroma code-values of allowable limits according to a color space specification and within the allowable limits, using a computer;

defining at least one region-of-interest within the input image based on containing the pixels having the code-values identified by the analyzing the input image, wherein defining the at least one region-of-interest includes creating a binary data file comprising bits corresponding to respective pixels of the input image;

setting the bits of the binary data file in response to said analyzing, wherein each of the bits indicates whether or not a corresponding pixel of the input image is within the first defined non-zero number of luma code-values or the second defined non-zero number of chroma code-values of the allowable limits according to the color space specification and within the allowable limits;

repeating the analyzing, defining, and encoding on successive frames of the video data, wherein the frames are converted into mezzanine compressed video data; and

providing, in a computer-readable medium, an intermediate electronic master file comprising the mezzanine compressed video data.

10. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the memory holds further instructions for using a wavelet based compression method as the compression method.

11. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the memory holds further instructions for using one of JPEG 2000 and H.264 as the compression method.

12. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the memory holds further instructions for designating luma (Y′) code-values as within the first defined non-zero number of luma code-values of the allowable limits only if the luma code-values are within at least 12 units of the allowable limits for luma code-values according to the color space specification.

13. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the memory holds further instructions for designating chroma (Cb/Cr) code-values as within the second defined non-zero number of chroma code-values of the allowable limits only if the chroma code-values are within at least 4 units of the allowable limits for the chroma code-values according to the color space specification.

14. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the memory holds further instructions for, as part of the encoding, selectively increasing distortion reduction for all coding passes within code-blocks contained within the region-of-interest by a factor that is greater than 1.

15. The apparatus of claim 14 , wherein the memory holds further instructions for determining a threshold for distortion-length slope to meet a defined rate-control requirement, and selectively including coding passes that have a distortion-length slope greater than the determined distortion-length slope threshold as part of the encoding.

16. A non-transitory computer-readable medium encoded with instructions, that when executed by a computer processor, cause the computer to perform:

reading raw video data from a computer-readable medium;

analyzing an input image comprising a frame of the raw video data, wherein the analyzing includes identifying pixels with code-values within a first defined non-zero number of luma code-values or a second defined non-zero number of chroma code-values of allowable limits according to a color space specification and within the allowable limits, using a computer;

defining at least one region-of-interest within the input image based on containing the pixels having the code-values identified by executing the instruction to analyze the input image, wherein defining the at least one region-of-interest includes creating a binary data file comprising bits corresponding to respective pixels of the input image;

setting the bits of the binary data file in response to said analyzing, wherein each of the bits indicates whether or not a corresponding pixel of the input image is within the first defined non-zero number of luma code-values or the second defined non-zero number of chroma code-values of the allowable limits according to the color space specification and within the allowable limits;

encoding the input image with higher precision in areas corresponding to the defined region-of-interest than in areas not corresponding to the defined region-of-interest using a compression method to provide compressed image data;

repeating the analyzing, defining, and encoding on successive frames of the video data, wherein the frames are converted into mezzanine compressed video data; and

providing, in a computer-readable medium, an intermediate electronic master file comprising the mezzanine compressed video data.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 16 , further encoded with instructions for using a wavelet based compression method as the compression method.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 16 , further encoded with instructions for using one of JPEG 2000 and H.264 as the compression method.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 16 , further encoded with instructions for designating code-values as within the first defined non-zero number of luma code-values of the allowable limits only if the code-values are within at least 12 units of the allowable limits according to the color space specification.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 16 , further encoded with instructions for, as part of the encoding, selectively increasing distortion reduction for all coding passes within code-blocks contained within the region-of-interest by a factor that is greater than 1.

21. The computer-readable medium of claim 20 , further encoded with instructions for determining a threshold for distortion-length slope to meet a defined rate-control requirement, and selectively including coding passes that have a distortion-length slope greater than the determined distortion-length slope threshold as part of the encoding.

Assignments (2)
SECURITY INTEREST Recorded Oct 1, 2025
From: WARNER BROS. DISCOVERY, INC.; WARNER MEDIA, LLC; TURNER BROADCASTING SYSTEM, INC.; HOME BOX OFFICE, INC.; DISCOVERY COMMUNICATIONS, LLC; WARNERMEDIA DIRECT LLC; DISCOVERY.COM LLC; WARNER BROS. ENTERTAINMENT INC.; CNN INTERACTIVE GROUP, INC.
To: JPMORGAN CHASE BANK, N.A., AS COLLATERAL AGENT
Reel/Frame 072995/0858 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Sep 8, 2014
From: SMITH, MICHAEL D.; COLLAR, BRADLEY
To: WARNER BROS. ENTERTAINMENT INC.
Reel/Frame 033691/0359 →