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The Bj{\o}ntegaard Delta (BD) method proposed in 2001 has become a popular tool for comparing video codec compression efficiency. It was initially proposed to compute bitrate and quality differences between two Rate-Distortion curves using PSNR as a distortion metric. Over the years, many works have calculated and reported BD results using other objective quality metrics such as SSIM, VMAF and, in some cases, even subjective ratings (mean opinion scores). However, the lack of consolidated literature explaining the metric, its evolution over the years, and a systematic evaluation of the same under different test conditions can result in a wrong interpretation of the BD results thus obtained. Towards this end, this paper presents a detailed tutorial describing the BD method and example cases where the metric might fail. We also provide a detailed history of its evolution, including a discussion of various proposed improvements and variations over the last 20 years. In addition, we evaluate the various BD methods and their open-source implementations, considering different objective quality metrics and subjective ratings taking into account different RD characteristics. Based on our results, we present a set of recommendations on using existing BD metrics and various insights for possible exploration towards developing more effective tools for codec compression efficiency evaluation and comparison.

In modern-era video streaming systems, videos are streamed and displayed on a wide range of devices. Such devices vary from large-screen UHD and HDTVs to medium-screen Desktop PCs and Laptops to smaller-screen devices such as mobile phones and tablets. It is well known that a video is perceived differently when displayed on different devices. The viewing experience for a particular video on smaller screen devices such as smartphones and tablets, which have high pixel density, will be different with respect to the case where the same video is played on a large screen device such as a TV or PC monitor. Being able to model such relative differences in perception effectively can help in the design of better quality metrics and in the design of more efficient and optimized encoding profiles, leading to lower storage, encoding, and transmission costs. This paper presents a new, open-source dataset consisting of subjective ratings for various encoded video sequences of different resolutions and bitrates (quality) when viewed on three devices of varying screen sizes: TV, Tablet, and Mobile. Along with the subjective scores, an evaluation of some of the most famous and commonly used open-source objective quality metrics is also presented. It is observed that the performance of the metrics varies a lot across different device types, with the recently standardized ITU-T P.1204.3 Model, on average, outperforming their full-reference counterparts. The dataset consisting of the videos, along with their subjective and objective scores, is available freely on Github at https://github.com/NabajeetBarman/Multiscreen-Dataset.

With the increasing advancements in video compression efficiency achieved by newer codecs such as HEVC, AV1, and VVC, and intelligent encoding strategies, as well as improved bandwidth availability,there has been a proliferation and acceptance of newer services such as Netflix, Twitch, etc. However, such higher compression efficiencies are achieved at the cost of higher complexity and encoding delay, while many applications are delay sensitive. Hence, there is a requirement for faster, more efficient codecs to achieve higher encoding efficiency without significant trade-off in terms of both complexity and speed. We present in this work an evaluation of the latest MPEG-5 Part 2 Low Complexity Enhancement Video Coding (LCEVC) for live gaming video streaming applications. The results are presented in terms of bitrate savings using both subjective and objective quality measures as well as a comparison of the encoding speeds. Our results indicate that, for the encoding settings used in this work, LCEVC outperforms both x264 and x265 codecs in terms of bitrate savings using VMAF by approximately 42\% and 38\%. Using subjective results, it is found that LCEVC outperforms the respective base codecs, especially for low bitrates. This effect is more evident for x264 than for x265, i.e., for the latter the absolute improvement of quality scores is smaller. The objective and subjective results as well as sample video sequences are made available as part of an open dataset, LCEVC-LiveGaming at https://github.com/NabajeetBarman/LCEVC-LiveGaming.

Gaming video streaming services have grown tremendously in the past few years, with higher resolutions, higher frame rates and HDR gaming videos getting increasingly adopted among the gaming community. Since gaming content as such is different from non-gaming content, it is imperative to evaluate the performance of the existing encoders to help understand the bandwidth requirements of such services, as well as further improve the compression efficiency of such encoders. Towards this end, we present in this paper GamingHDRVideoSET, a dataset consisting of eighteen 10-bit UHD-HDR gaming videos and encoded video sequences using four different codecs, together with their objective evaluation results. The dataset is available online at [to be added after paper acceptance]. Additionally, the paper discusses the codec compression efficiency of most widely used practical encoders, i.e., x264 (H.264/AVC), x265 (H.265/HEVC) and libvpx (VP9), as well the recently proposed encoder libaom (AV1), on 10-bit, UHD-HDR content gaming content. Our results show that the latest compression standard AV1 results in the best compression efficiency, followed by HEVC, H.264, and VP9., Comment: 14 pages, 8 figures, submitted to IEEE journal

We provide in this paper a tutorial and a comprehensive survey of QoE management solutions in current and future networks. We start with a high level description of QoE management for multimedia services, which integrates QoE modelling, monitoring, and optimization. This followed by a discussion of HTTP Adaptive Streaming (HAS) solutions as the dominant technique for streaming videos over the best-effort Internet. We then summarize the key elements in SDN/NFV along with an overview of ongoing research projects, standardization activities and use cases related to SDN, NFV, and other emerging applications. We provide a survey of the state-of-the-art of QoE management techniques categorized into three different groups: a) QoE-aware/driven strategies using SDN and/or NFV; b) QoE-aware/driven approaches for adaptive streaming over emerging architectures such as multi-access edge computing, cloud/fog computing, and information-centric networking; and c) extended QoE management approaches in new domains such as immersive augmented and virtual reality, mulsemedia and video gaming applications. Based on the review, we present a list of identified future QoE management challenges regarding emerging multimedia applications, network management and orchestration, network slicing and collaborative service management in softwarized networks. Finally, we provide a discussion on future research directions with a focus on emerging research areas in QoE management, such as QoE-oriented business models, QoE-based big data strategies, and scalability issues in QoE optimization., Comment: 42 pages, 21 figures, 10 tables