QoE of Syntax, Freeze, and Texture Repair Techniques for Digital Multimedia Broadcasting

Given the nature of broadcasting systems having limited feedback to the transmitter, impairments induced during transmission need to be coped with at the receiver. In this paper, we focus on digital multimedia broadcasting (DMB) which is deployed in South Korea. An extensive measurement campaign conducted in a live DMB system resulted in a set of videos containing a wide range of syntax, freeze, and texture impairments. Subjective tests were conducted with participants from East Asia which rated the quality of DMB video clips with syntax, freeze, and texture impairments and the related repaired clips. The analysis of the obtained quality ratings has revealed the potential of quality of experience (QoE) improvement of each of the three impairment types. The results support the conjecture that syntax repair offers the largest QoE improvement followed by freeze repair and texture repair. This finding can assist system developers of digital broadcasting systems in deciding about the range of repair techniques to be engaged subject to, e.g., QoE, complexity, and latency constraints.