A framework for end-to-end video quality prediction of MPEG video

This paper proposes, describes and evaluates a novel framework for video quality prediction of MPEG-based video services, considering the perceptual degradation that is introduced by the encoding process and the provision of the encoded signal over an error-prone wireless or wire-line network. The concept of video quality prediction is considered in this work, according to which the encoding parameters of the video service and the network QoS conditions are used for performing an estimation/prediction of the video quality level at the user side, without further processing of the actual encoded and transmitted video content. The proposed prediction framework consists of two discrete models: (i) a model for predicting the video quality of an encoded signal at a pre-encoding stage by correlating the spatiotemporal content dynamics to the bit rate that satisfies a specific level of user satisfaction; and (ii) a model that predicts primarily the undecodable frames (and subsequently the perceived quality degradation caused by them) based on the monitored averaged packet loss ratio of the network. The proposed framework is experimentally tested and validated with video signals encoded according to MPEG-4 standard.