MainConcept™ SVC
Scalable Video Coding
Delivering content over the network to a plethora of receiving devices with different capabilities and connection speeds doesn’t have to be a headache. With the MainConcept Scalable Video Coding SDK, it’s possible to encode content a single time with separate “layers” to deliver video with lower or higher spatial or temporal resolutions to receiving devices.
SVC (Scalable Video Coding) is a new extension to the H.264/AVC standard that allows a video stream to be encoded with multiple quality layers. In a single step and into a single bitstream, quality layers are encoded with different resolutions (Spatial), different quality levels (SNR/Quality/Fidelity) or different frame rates (Temporal) and combinations of these features. The SVC Decoder and a SVC enabled Streaming Server can skip layers based on the decoding device abilities or the bandwidth restrictions of the delivery network. The MainConcept SVC SDK offers full Baseline as well as MainHigh Profile support, incl. Temporal Scalability with up to 16 layers.
The desire for Scalable Video Coding (SVC) originates from the continuous evolution of receiving devices and the increasing usage of transmission systems that are characterized by a widely varying connection quality. SVC allows on-the-fly adaptation to certain application requirements and conditions such as display and processing capabilities of target devices, and varying network conditions – established in one new standard.
In today’s landscape, video is used in many diverse applications – from mobile phones to computers to HDTVs. In particular, the Internet and wireless networks gain more and more importance for video applications. Media transmission in such systems is exposed to variable conditions, which can be dealt with using a set of scalability features.
Video content is also delivered to a variety of decoding devices with heterogeneous display and computational capabilities. Flexible adaptation of once-encoded content is desirable, at the same time enabling perfect and robust interoperability of encoder and decoder products.
The MainConcept SVC SDK includes an encoder which encodes content at bitrates and resolutions appropriate for mobile, SD and HD devices, and a decoder that can select the entire bit stream or only a partial bit stream for decoding and playback based on the receiver’s capability.
The SVC SDK also includes a network server for pushing content and a network client capable of dynamically changing layers. The resulting solution delivers better quality of service, simpler management, and optimized usage of bandwidth. Network storage demand is reduced by eliminating the need to encode multiple copies of the same content for different platforms.
- Maintain high quality to and from remote conference participants over the public Internet, despite problematic connectivity, packet loss and limited bandwidth.
- Deliver high quality desktop to desktop conferencing even if network conditions or client capabilities are limited.
- Achieve superior connectivity between MCUs in distributed networks, even if network paths are prone to errors.
- Deliver superior high quality video in a mixed SVC/AVC network environment.
- Reduce costs with a simple, streamlined MCU approach.
- Progressive encoding to Scalable Baseline and Scalable High Profiles.
- Medium Grain Scalability.
- Spatial and SNR scalability with up to 16 layers total.
- Up to 3 temporal layers.
- I, P, B and reference B frames, including hierarchical structures with 3 B frames.
- CABAC and CAVLC entropy coding.
- Deblocking filter.
- Dyadic and extended (non-diadic) spatial scalability.
- Backward compatible to the broadly accepted H.264/AVC standard (base layer for Baseline, Main, High Profile).
- Multi-threaded.
- Scalable Baseline Profile and Scalable High Profile (no interlaced support)
- Spatial, SNR and Temporal Scalability
- I/P/B-slices support
- All macroblock partitioning
- Intra macroblocks in inter slices
- Inter/Intra Layer Deblocking
- On-the-fly layer selection (API)
- Support for up to 8 spatial, 16 quality and 8 temporal enhancement layers.
- API to extract layer information (e.g. width, height, quality ID, etc.)
- Backward compatible to the broadly accepted H.264/AVC standard (base layer)
- Multi-threaded
- RTCP protocol support
- FU-A and STAP-A Nal Unit Types support in both SVC and H.264/AVC
- Uses UDP and TCP for transfer of media data using RTP optionally.
- Provides a push mode interface.
- Can be used with Microsoft Windows Media Player (for URI with mc_rtsp:// prefix).
- Allows adjustment using SDP data from file or from SAP announcements broadcasted over the network.
- Supports multicast and unicast (anycast for Ipv6/broadcast for Ipv4).
- Supports Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) and Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6).
- Allows adjustment via formatted URL (for multiplexed streams).
- Allows selection of Network Interface (NIC) which should be used for streaming if several NICs are presented on the client workstation.
- Dynamic streams count (more/less than two).
- Dynamic change of SVC layers
- Full compliance with RTP Payload Format for SVC Video
- FU-A and STAP-A Nal Unit Types support in both SVC and H.264/AVC
- Sending announcements with SDP (using SAP).
- Supports multicast (anycast for Ipv6/broadcast for Ipv4) and unicast.
- Supports Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) and Internet Protocol version 6 (Ipv6).
- Allows selection of Network Interface (NIC) which should be used for streaming if several NICs are presented on the client workstation.
- Auto select of available ports (busy ports will be skipped, and next free port will be selected).
- User input correction.
- SVC Encoder
- SVC Config Tool
- SVC Decoder
- Network Server Filter
- Network Client Filter
- MPEG Pull Demultiplexer
- MP4 Demuxer
Encoder and Decoder for Windows available as DirectShow and LowLevel components as well.
- Windows, XP, Vista, Windows 7 (32-bit and 64-bit)
- Apple Mac OS X 10.5 or higher (Mac/Intel), (32-bit/64-bit)
- Linux 32-bit and 64-bit - Ubuntu 10.04 LTS