[M4IF Technotes] Escape coding

[Gary Sullivan]

The purpose of avoiding use of fixed-length coded values of 0 and 128
is to prevent accidental start-code emulation within the video data
bitstream.
Both of those values end in seven zeros, which is too many. (And one of
them
is all zero, which is even worse.)
I believe there is no need for an escape-coded value of zero.  If the
thing
is zero, you should just skip the coefficient value (at least if it's
AC).
If you want to represent something as close as possible to 255, send
254.
If you want to represent something as close as possible to 0, either
send
1 or represent the coefficient by skipping it.
Best Regards,
Gary Sullivan
+> -----Original Message-----
+> From: Manu V Batura [mailto:Manu.Batura   patni.com] 
+> Sent: Saturday, October 19, 2023 3:40 AM
+> To: technotes   lists.m4if.org
+> Subject: [M4IF Technotes] Escape coding
+> 
+> 
+> Hi,
+> 
+> The MPEG-4 video standard indicates that the values 0 and 
+> 128 are reserved
+> while performing escape coding.
+> They should not be transmitted by the encoder. The decoder 
+> should also
+> convert a received 255 level
+> to 128. Can anyone please explain the reason for doing so? 
+> Which levels
+> should be transmitted if the levels are
+> 0, 128 or 255 after prediction/quantization?
+> 
+> Thanks & Regards,
+> Manu
+> 
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