Performance Comparison of H.264 and H.265 Encoders in a 4K FPV Drone Piloting System

Abstract

With the rapid growth of video data traffic on the Internet and the development of new types of video transmission systems, the need for ad hoc video encoders has also increased. One such case involves Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), widely known as drones, which are used in drone races, search and rescue efforts, capturing panoramic views, and so on. In this paper, we provide an efficiency comparison of the two most popular video encoders—H.264 and H.265—in a drone piloting system using first-person view (FPV). In this system, a drone is used to capture video, which is then transmitted to FPV goggles in real time. We examine the compression efficiency of 4K drone footage by varying parameters such as Group of Pictures (GOP) size, Quantization Parameter (QP), and target bitrate. The quality of the compressed footage is determined using four objective video quality measures: PSNR, SSIM, VMAF, and BRISQUE. Apart from video quality, encoding time and encoding energy consumption are also compared. The research was performed using numerous nodes on a supercomputer.