[M4IF Technotes] MP4 rate control

[Nariman Habili]

I'm currently using the Microsoft MPEG-4 Video Reference Software, Version: 
Microsoft-FDAM1-2.3-001213. I have segmented a video sequence (in QCIF 
format) into two VOPs (background and foreground).
I would like to compress each VOP separately, at different bit-rates, using 
binary shape coding. The length of the sequence is 8 frames. I'm using MP4 
rate control. I've set Texture.QuantStep.IVOP and Texture.QuantStep.PVOP 
manually, as suggested in the User Manual. However, I find that the same 
visual quality is obtained for each VOP after decoding using significantly 
different bit-rates (e.g., 64,000 bps and 8,000 bps); moreover, the average 
quantizer value is the same for the different bit-rates. I've even tried 
setting the bit-rate to 0, and the encoder still works!
I would be grateful if anyone could suggest ways to remedy this problem. Is 
there any other software that I can use for the same purpose?
regards
Nariman
--
Nariman Habili
Visiting research fellow
School of Computer Engineering
Nanyang Technological University
Singapore
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