
W
HITE
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APER
(cont.)
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ECG068/0798
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2.
Compressing
the video using lossy compression techniques. This is generally needed for
almost all networks because of the high bandwidth requirements of uncompressed video.
3.
Streaming
the video using data packets over the network. Small video files may be
downloaded and played, but there is a tendency to stream larger video content for faster
viewing.
Scaling
While converting from the RGB color space to a subsampled YCrCb color space helps reduce file
size, it is only a 1/3 to 1/2 reduction which is not nearly enough. Techniques to lower this further
involve scaling one or more of the three factors mentioned above: frame rate, color depth, and
frame resolution. For example, scaling the frame resolution results in different size windows for
showing the video on the screen.
Further scaling of all three parameters can dramatically reduce the video rate as can be seen in
the following diagram.
Even though the above scaling represents over a 10:1 reduction in data rate at the expense of size
and video quality, it is still not enough for most network delivery. For example, a 10BaseT
Ethernet network supports data rates of 10 MegaBits/sec. This is not enough bandwidth to
deliver even one video stream at the above scaled data rate. Further scaling can be done. For
example, the video can be scaled to a "thumbnail" size video at a few frames per second with 8-bit
color—but this is poor in quality and still does not accomplish the data rate reduction necessary to
1/4 Screen
1/8 Screen
Full Screen
Frame Rate: 30 fps (Full Motion)
Resolution: 640x480 (Full Screen)
Color Depth: 24-bit (True Color)
Data Rate = (640 X 480 pixels)*
(3 bytes/pixel)*(30 fps)/(1024000
bytes/megabyte)*8 bits/byte
=
216 Megabits per second
Frame Rate: 15 fps
Resolution: 320x240 (Quarter Screen)
Color Depth: 16-bit
Data Rate = (320 X 240 pixels)*
(2 bytes/pixel)*(15 fps)/(1024000
bytes/megabyte)*8 bits per byte
=
18 Megabits per second
x 1/2
x 1/4
x 2/3