“Trampeg”: An MPEG‐2 real‐time software transcoder for low‐bit‐rate transmission
Takashi Akutsu, Hideaki Kimata, Atsushi Shimizu, Yoshiyuki Yashima, Naoki Kobayashi · Systems and Computers in Japan · 2002
Abstract In the audiovisual handling of content coded by MPEG‐2 transmitted over various kinds of networks such as the Internet or LAN, transformation of coding bit rates or transcoding is necessary. The simplest transcoding method is that of decoding MPEG‐2 completely and then reencoding it at a lower bit rate. However, real‐time processing of this method on a commonly used PC is difficult since the level of operations or the computational complexity for coding is high. However, if using the before‐transformation coding information decreases the computational complexity, real‐time transformation (transcoding) by software becomes possible. In this study, the Trampeg software transcoder (transcoder for MPEG‐2) capable of real‐time transcoding MPEG‐2 with high quality has been developed. The applications, design guidelines, and processing algorithms of Trampeg are presented in this paper. The results of evaluation for operation of the system over a real PC have verified that an MPEG‐2 system stream input via a network can be transcoded in real time and the transcoded low‐rate stream can be transmitted directly to a streaming server. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Syst Comp Jpn, 33(12): 77–86, 2002; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/scj.10062