Practical operating points of multi-resolution frame compatible (MFC) stereo coding

3D content is gaining popularity and the production and delivery of 3D video is now an active working item among video compression experts, content providers and the CE industry. Frame compatible stereo coding was initially adopted for the first generation of 3DTV broadcasting services for its compatibility with existing 2D decoders. However, the frame compatible solution sacrifices half of the original video resolution. In 2012, the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) issued the call for proposal (CfP) for solutions that improve the resolution of frame compatible stereo 3D video signal while maintaining the backward compatibility to legacy decoders. The standardization process of the multi-resolution frame compatible (MFC) stereo coding was then started. In this paper, the solution - Orthogonal Muxing Frame Compatible Full Resolution (OM-FCFR) - as a response to the CfP is introduced. In addition, this paper provides some experimental results for broadcasters to guide them in selecting operating points for MFC. It is observed that for typical broadcast bitrates, more than 0.5dB PSNR improvement can be achieved by MFC over the frame compatible solution with only 15%similar to 20% overhead.