Optimal Macroblock Mode Selection for H.264 Video Robust Transmission

The channel distortion and error propagation of damaged macroblock are analyzed. The impact of macroblock modes on source distortion and channel distortion is discussed,and thus a fast macroblock mode selection algorithm is proposed based on joint source-channel rate distortion optimization. By evaluating the channel distortion and source distortion of all macroblock modes, the optimal macroblock mode is selected adaptively to minimize transmission distortion. Compared with the mode selection algorithm in H.264 reference software, our simulation results show that the proposed algorithm reduces computational complexity significantly and gets better error resilient.