ScalVico is a software-only SCALable VIdeo
COdec based on lattice vector
quantization (VQ) and multiscale motion compensation. It's not DCT
based! It was developed by Uwe Horn at
the Telecommunications
Institute, University
Erlangen-Nuremberg. If you want to learn more about how it works check the
online
publications section of Uwe Horn's homepage.
Juergen Weigert is
currently working on the Web integration of our codec. The decoder has been
implemented as a Netscape plugin but it is also available as a standalone
application. Both have been compiled for various hardware platforms. To find
out, if your browser already knows about ScalVico check your "help->About Plugins" list. If not, first download the plugin (also
available with debug output) or the
standalone application (we recommend to use the plugin).
The listed sequences can be
previewed at two different qualities. At the moment you have to select the
appropriate bitrate and quality by yourself. In future versions this will
hopefully be done in the network layer. If bandwidth is not sufficient you can
still download the video to disk and view it offline. The server application
accesses the stored videos in its compressed form. If you request a lower
bitrate, the server simply drops those data packets belonging to higher rates.
The ScalVico bitstream syntax is still
under development. The sequences presented here, will be updated on regular
intervals. Please understand, that older versions of ScalVico may not be able
to play the streams correctly. If you have problems in viewing one of those
sequences please download the current decoder versions.
The current decoder version is dated 12/14/97.