•     Introduction

A video codec analyzer enables users to quickly and easily check the conformance and encoding algorithm performance. Commercial analyzers are usually available after the standards are mature or finalized. They decode the bitstream and visualize the encoding parameters through a graphical user interface. Nowadays, MPEG and VCEG are actively developing the next-generation video coding standard that will outperform H.264/AVC. There exist many competing solutions for High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) and the syntax elements evolve rapidly at the standard development stage. To assist the standard development, we design an analyzer that accepts the statistical data as input and make it independent of the syntax design. The analyzer is flexible and easily extendable, which can support both the state-of-art AVC and developing HEVC. We use the Test Model under Consideration (TMuC) and Key Technology Area (KTA) as illustrations.

What is an analyzer? A computer-human interactive tool Visualize the coding parameters Calculate and display data statistics Provide feedback for encoder/decoder design Usage scenarios Visualize coding parameters Compare coding algorithms Provide feedback on conformance and performance

•     Implementation

We implemented the analyzer using MATLAB graphical user interface. We classify coding parameters into three categories by their properties. For more details, please refer to our paper. [download]

•     Functionalities

Display grid in user specified size
Display Coding Tree Block (CTB) partition
Display motion vectors
Display reference indexes
Display prediction modes
Display transform types and sizes
Dispaly QP
Display Y/U/V channel image
Go to first/last frame
Play video with overlay
Go to arbitrary frame
Preview
Take snapshot
Plot statistics

•     Demos

GUI screenshots of some example usages on KTA and TMuC: (click to enlarge)

Y channel               MVs            Modes & Partitions          Filter       Transform sizes with modes        Statistics

Here is a video to show how to use the analyzer: ( download (2.5M) )

•     Useful references