Error concealment for MPEG-2 video decoders with enhanced coding mode estimation

We present a novel error-concealment method for MPEG-2 video decoders. Impe rfect transmission of block-based compressed images may result in loss of b locks, making image degradation inevitable. In the hybrid error-concealment method, both spatial and temporal error concealment repair the damaged reg ions through adaptive interpolation in the respective domains. In order for the hybrid method to yield good performance it should be presumed that cod ing-mode estimation is correct. In reality, however erroneous coding mode e stimation frequently occurs, ultimately resulting in poor performance. In t he proposed method, we reduce the number of erroneously estimated coding-mo des by utilizing the fact that MPEG-2 video coding is based on block-based coding. This enhanced hybrid technique effectively conceals the lost blocks by raising the probability of correct coding mode estimation by exploiting the image characteristics such as scene changes and complex motions. Throu gh computer simulations on damaged images we show that the proposed method has excellent performance.