MPEG-4 compliant video encoding: analysis and rate control strategies

Any set of MPEG-4 elementary bitstreams building a video scene can only be considered profile@level compliant if it does not violate the MPEG-4 video buffering verifier constraints for the chosen profile@level. This paper analyses this mechanism, discussing its major features and drawbacks, notably in comparison with alternative solutions. Furthermore, rate control strategies to guarantee a compliant encoding, are proposed.