Fast motion vector re-estimation for transcoding MPEG-1 into MPEG-4 with lower spatial resolution in DCT-domain

In this paper, we propose a fast motion vector re-estimation for transcoding MPEG-1 to MPEG-4 with lower spatial resolution. This task can be performed in the pixel-domain or in the discrete cosine transform (DCT) domain. In this paper, we concentrate on the DCT-domain approach, which requires lower delay and complexity than those in the pixel-domain. For the DCT-domain transcoding to lower spatial resolution pictures, DCT-domain down-sampling filter is applied and a base motion vector (BMV) for the down-sampled MPEG-4 macroblock is to be calculated from the input motion vectors operating on the higher spatial resolution image. Quality can be significantly improved by refining the BMV. Starting with the BMV, the motion vector refinement (MVR) scheme searches for a delta motion vector within a significantly reduced search area. We propose a fast MVR scheme for video down-sampling in the DCT-domain based on minimizing the number of required check points, and a computationally efficient method for extracting motion compensated DCT block. We also show an efficient scheme for selecting a coding mode for a macroblock in the lower resolution video from those of the corresponding higher resolution video.