Performance Evaluation of Scalable Distribution of Omni-Directional Video Sequences using H.264

Abstract

In this paper, we present a scalable solution for distributing omni-directional video sequences to multiple viewers using advanced facilities provided by the H.264 codec. In contrast to traditional broadcast scenarios, in the context of omni- directional video, it is the consumer who de nes the camera view direction and viewport size. This hints to the fact that a single generic stream will generally not su ce as input for the client viewer application or device, but that a customized stream is required for each user. Transcoding such content on the y is widely regarded as a non-scalable solution, as will also be demonstrated in this paper. The proposed solu- tion to the scalability problem consists of viewport selection in the compressed domain, reducing the complexity to the selection of speci c parts in an existing bit stream. Experi- mental results are provided that demonstrate the feasibility of the solution and quantify the performance gain over a transcoding system.