An efficient algorithm to eliminate temporal pumping artifact in video coding with hierarchical prediction structure

• A metric for just noticeable temporal pumping artifact (TPA) is established.
• An efficient TPA eliminating algorithm in video coding is proposed.
• The proposed algorithm achieves a more smooth subjective video quality.
• The proposed algorithm improves the observe comfort of the human eye.

At low bit-rates, hierarchical prediction structure using quantization parameter cascading strategy will introduce a new temporal distortion, i.e., the temporal pumping artifact (TPA) presenting itself as a stumbling effect which seriously affect the subjective video reconstructive quality. This paper analyzes one important key factor which greatly influence the critical perceptual of the TPA and proposes a metric for just noticeable temporal pumping artifact (JNTPA) based on spatial–temporal masking effects in human visual system (HVS). Finally, an efficient TPA eliminating algorithm in video coding based on the JNTPA has been proposed. The subsequent experiments demonstrate that the estimated JNTPA values using the proposed metric are in line with the HVS perception and comparable with JVT-P104, the proposed TPA eliminating algorithm achieves a more smooth subjective video quality and improves the observe comfort of the human eye. At the same bit-rate, better subjective video quality can be observed using the eliminating algorithm.