Subjective Video Codec Evaluation For Streaming Services Up To 1 Mbps

Recent research has established that we can offer dvd-quality video streaming services to customers with broadband network access using MPEG1 and MPEG2 coding schemes at bit-rates greater than 1.5Mbps, achieving an optimal balance between bandwidth and quality around 3Mbps. New video codecs have evolved and matured which can reduce the necessary streaming bandwidth without adversely affecting quality to an unacceptable degree [1]. As these codecs are based on lossy coding algorithms, it is essential to gain an understanding of the subjective quality offered, as perceived by the end user of multimedia services. This understanding will not be built on a mathematic analysis which would reveal the actual quality of each encoding, but will rather use a statistical method to ascertain the perceived quality from the user point of view, which will be the guideline for creating and offering multimedia network services.