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VIDEO FOR DVD:

UNDERSTANDING MPEG-2
COMPRESSION

by Philip De Lancie
As a distribution medium, DVD-Video offers the potential for quality that is
far closer to the original than VHS. But to realize that potential, the look and
feel that has been painstakingly created in production and post must be main-
tained through the DVD title preparation process. That process might include
steps that are familiar, such as transfer from film to video (telecine), standards
conversion (NTSC to PAL or vice versa), editing for home video release, or
even shooting additional material for value-added “featurettes.” But it will
also include the relatively new and often unfamiliar step of video compres-
sion, which is a critical determinant of the ultimate quality. Film-makers
armed with an understanding of compression and the factors that affect it will
know what to expect when they see the results on their own work, and will be
better positioned to influence the fidelity with which that work is translated to
DVD.

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DVDMadeEasy.com Video for DVD: Understanding MPEG-2 Compression

Why Compression?
Video compression basically means using fewer bits to store and transmit dig-
ital video information. The data-rate of uncompressed “studio quality” digital
video (ITU-R BT.601-5) is upwards of 100 Megabits per second, which vastly
exceeds the speed at which a DVD player can retrieve video information from
a disc (9.8 mbps). Storing a two hour program at this rate takes over 90
Gigabytes, while the storage capacity of DVD ranges from 4.7 to 17 GB. The
answer to this dilemma is MPEG compression. DVD-Video supports both
MPEG-1 (also used for Video CD in Asia) and MPEG-2. MPEG-2 is universally
regarded as yielding higher image quality, and is the norm for most DVD-
Video titles.
One underlying assumption of MPEG-2 compression is that motion pictures
contain lots of redundancy, both within each frame and between a series of
consecutive frames. Another is that there is some information in each frame
that may be discarded without noticeably affecting the way that picture is per-
ceived when played back. MPEG-2 reduces the overall volume of data both by
discarding such “un-needed” information and by storing redundant data
more efficiently.
To realize these efficiencies, MPEG-2 first performs intra-frame compression,
similar to the techniques used in still-image formats such as JPEG. Next comes
inter-frame compression, in which a series of adjacent frames are compared,
and only the information necessary to describe the differences between succes-
sive frames is retained. When the encoded material is played back, a decoder
extrapolates from the stored information to re-create a complete set of discrete
frames.
The result of the MPEG-2 encoding process is a video stream. The basic unit of
the stream is a “Group of Pictures” (GOP), made up of three picture types: I, B,
and P. I-pictures (intra) are compressed using intra-frame techniques only,
meaning that the information stored is complete enough to decode the frame
without reference to any adjacent frames. For B (bi-directional) and P (predic-
tive) pictures, however, only “difference information” (frame-to-frame
changes) is stored, which generates much less data. These pictures can only be
reconstructed by referring to the I-pictures around them, which is why the dif-
ferent picture types are grouped into GOPs.

VBR Encoding
Video that has been professionally encoded in the MPEG-2 format may be vir-
tually indistinguishable from the uncompressed video source. The extent to
which the original image quality is maintained depends mostly on two factors:
the bit-rate used and the nature of the material.
Remember that MPEG-2 works by storing redundant information more effi-
ciently. A relatively static scene (two people talking in front of a wall) will have
far greater frame-to-frame redundancy than a fast-paced action scene (a high-
speed car chase). With fewer redundant bits to discard, the action scene will
require a higher bit-rate. Looked at another way, a low bit-rate will cause more
compression artifacts (blockiness, for example) in the action scene than in the
static scene.

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DVDMadeEasy.com Video for DVD: Understanding MPEG-2 Compression

MPEG-2 video may be encoded in either Constant Bit-rate (“CBR”) or Variable

Bit-rate (“VBR”) modes. In CBR, bits are allocated evenly across the entire pro-
gram. But VBR addresses the fact that complex scenes are harder to encode. In
VBR, the average bit-rate may be the same as in CBR, but more bits are allo-
cated to difficult scenes, and fewer to the rest.
The peak bit-rate available for difficult scenes will never be higher than the
maximum DVD-Video video transfer rate (9.8 mbps), less headroom (about 0.4
mbps), the data rate of the audio (192-448 kbps per Dolby Digital stream; up to
eight streams supported), and subtitles (4 kbps per language; up to 32 lan-
guages). For example, a title with a 5.1 channel English soundtrack (at 0.384
mbps), plus stereo soundtracks in French and Spanish (0.192 mbps each)
would have about 8.6 mbps left over for video.
If the title’s video program were short relative to the disc capacity—under
about an hour on a DVD-5, for instance—there would be no advantage to VBR,
because the entire program would fit on the disc even when encoded entirely
at the 8.6 mbps peak video bit-rate. But if the program were two hours long,
the average data-rate would have to be reduced to about 4 mbps to fit on the
disc. This rate is probably too low to yield good quality in complex scenes,
which generally require upwards of 6 mbps. Instead of increasing capacity by
moving up to a DVD-9, which is more expensive to manufacture, VBR encod-
ing would normally be used to increase the quality of difficult scenes by re-
allocating bits saved in easy ones (which may be encoded at rates as low as 2
mbps).

Preserving the Quality

Now that we have an idea of how MPEG-2 compression works, what can be
done on a practical level to ensure that the quality of a film or video is not
noticeably compromised when the work is released on DVD-Video? The first
thing is to recognize that VBR encoding can only do so much, and to plan con-
tent accordingly. The longer the main feature, the more action scenes, and the
longer the featurettes (these are often encoded at lower bit-rates than the fea-
ture), the more likely that a title will need to be released on a DVD-9. If that
extra disc manufacturing cost isn’t in the budget, plans for added-value mate-
rial may have to be scaled back to allow acceptable video quality for the main
feature. The video bit-rate may also be increased by cutting back on the num-
ber and type of audio streams.
Another crucial factor is the quality of the material before it gets to the encoder.
Just because the material will be compressed doesn’t mean that compromises
made upstream won’t show up in the final result. “The quality you get out of
MPEG depends what you start with,” says David Deelo, compression man-
ager at Crest National in Hollywood, California. “It’s the old adage about gar-
bage in, garbage out.”
Best results will be achieved from video that either is shot in a component dig-
ital video format such as D1 or Digital Betacam, or is transferred from film
directly to these formats (higher resolution such as HDTV is even better). The
highest possible resolution should be maintained at each editing and process-
ing step the video goes through before MPEG-2 encoding.

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DVDMadeEasy.com Video for DVD: Understanding MPEG-2 Compression

If a program has been off-line edited on a non-linear system that uses compres-
sion, Deelo suggests that it be edited on-line to create the source master for the
DVD release. At the least, the NLE output should be evaluated before the
project is compressed. “Look for smooth gradations from dark to light,” Deelo
says, “such as in the falloff from a light shining on a wall. You don’t want to
see any banding. And watch for ‘mosquito-ing’ around titles—weird spider
effects where the edges are not clearly defined.”
Even when an NLE system does not use compression, Deelo says outputting
to D1 or Digital Betacam may still be preferable to “transcoding” directly from
the edited NLE file to MPEG. That’s not due to any weakness in software-
based encoding, which he says can yield results comparable to hardware
encoding. Instead, Deelo is concerned about pre-processing, which is used to
optimize the video signal before compression. “DVNR [digital video noise
reduction] is not just grain removal,” he says. “There is also a series of filtering
and enhancements we do, such as brick-wall filtering to take out high frequen-
cies before they hit the encoder.” Deelo has not found software-based pre-pro-
cessing that he feels gives as good results as hardware DVNR.
Perhaps the most welcome observation that Deelo has to offer is that film mak-
ers can set aside some of the concerns they have acquired from seeing their
work prepared for NTSC broadcast or VHS release. He says he has had cine-
matographers tell him that “they like bright, saturated colors, but they know
that when they are in telecine they can’t use the colors they want, because they
are making a master for television. But that’s not true for DVD. Go for the
color, go for the sharpness; make the master look how you want it to look. If
you like what you see coming out of telecine, we can preserve those qualities
when we encode it for DVD.”

Freelance writer Philip De Lancie covers technology, techniques, and mar-

kets for professionals in media production and distribution.

Copyright © 2001 Phil De Lancie. All rights reserved. 4