Multiple description video coding using GOB alternation and low quality macroblock update

To combat packet loss and realize robust video transmission over Internet and wireless networks, a new multiple description (MD) video coding method is proposed. In the method, two descriptions for each video frame is first created by group of blocks (GOB) alternation. Motion information is then duplicated in both the descriptions and a process called low quality macroblock update is designed to redundantly encode textures in each frame using standard bit stream syntax. In this way, the output bit streams are standard compliant and better tradeoffs between redundancy and single channel reconstruction distortion are achieved. The proposed method has much better performance than the wellknown MD transform coding (MDTC) method both in terms of redundancy rate distortion, and in the packet loss scenario.