• Journal of Broadcast Engineering
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.501-515
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• 2008

Recently, as users' requests for high quality mobile multimedia services are rapidly increasing and additional bandwidth can be provided by adopting the hierarchical modulation transmission technology, the research on the Advanced Terrestrial DMB (AT-DMB) service using the SVC (Scalable Video Coding) scheme is being actively studied. But, in order to realize a compatible video service and to accelerate the successful standardization and commercialization, it is necessary to simplify the compatible encoder structure. In this parer, we propose a fast mode decision method by constraining the redundant coding modes in the spatial scalable encoder that keeps the current T-DMB video in base layer. The proposed method is based on the statistical characteristics of each coding mode at both base and enhancement layers, inter-layer predictions, which are derived by investigating macroblock-layer coding modes of the spatial scalable encoder's functional structure. Through computer simulations, it is shown that a simplified encoder model that reduces the heavy computational burden can be found, while keeping the objective visual quality very high.