Returning Greatness to Film Grain: Introducing AV1-Compatible Film Grain Modeling for Existing HEVC-Based Video Codecs

Dan Grois, Alex Giladi, Thomas Guionnet, Thomas Burnichon, Nikolay Tverdokhleb, Mickael Raulet

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    Abstract

    Film grain is spatially random in nature, while its physical size can also vary. In addition, film grain is independent in a temporal domain, thereby making it inherently difficult to compress. Therefore, to improve a video coding gain, the film grain is removed prior to encoding, and then added back after decoding at the post-processing stage, as is currently implemented in the Alliance for Open Media (AOM) AV1 coding scheme. In this work, the AV1-compatible film grain modeling for the High-Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC)-based video codecs has been carried out to utilize the existing AV1 film grain post-processing support efficiently. This is done by providing estimated film grain parameters within the International Telecommunication Union-Telecommunication (ITU-T) Recommendation T.35 (ITU-T T.35) Supplemental Enhancement Information (SEI) message. According to extensive experimental results conducted on popular cinematic content, significant bitrate savings are achieved.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)40-50
    Number of pages11
    JournalSMPTE Motion Imaging Journal
    Volume133
    Issue number1
    DOIs
    StatePublished - 1 Jan 2024

    Keywords

    • AOM
    • AV1
    • CODING EFFICIENCY
    • FILM GRAIN
    • H.265
    • HEVC
    • VIDEO COMPRESSION

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • Media Technology
    • Electrical and Electronic Engineering

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