3D-HDTV digital coding scheme conforming to MPEG-2 with full use of disparity compensation

3D-HDTV is regarded as the high-definition image application to succeed HDTV. Narrowband real-time transmission of 3D-HDTV is expected to be implemented by highly efficient compression techniques that utilize the features of a stereoscopic moving image. In this paper, the principal objectives are to reduce the image quality differences between the channels and to develop more advanced element technologies based on disparity compensation. Within the MPEG-2 multiview profile framework, which is the international standard for stereoscopic coding, a 3D-HDTV moving image coding scheme was investigated and its performance evaluated based on simulation test results. First, in addition to introducing common buffer control given the objective of reducing the image quality difference between the channels, the optimum GOP setting for 3D-HDTV coding is explained. Furthermore, advanced techniques for motion estimation and rate control implemented based on disparity compensation are proposed and shown to be effective in implementing highly efficient 3D-HDTV coding. © 2001 Scripta Technica, Electron Comm Jpn Pt 1, 85(2): 51–60, 2002