Apparatus and method for switching between single description and multiple descriptions

Abstract

Provided is an apparatus for and a method of transcoding video, in which, in the transmission of a compressed video, the compressed video is transcoded into multiple descriptions in an error prone environment and is transcoded into a single description in an lower error or errorless environment. Video transcoder includes a decoding unit, a single description/multiple description determining unit, and a transcoding unit. The decoding unit decodes a compressed video to generate video header, a motion vector, and a DCT (discrete cosine transform) coefficient for each frame. The single description/multiple description determining unit determines whether to perform transcoding into a single description or multiple descriptions based on the possibility of errors occurring in a transmission channel of the compressed video. The transcoding unit performs transcoding into the single description by coding the DCT coefficient together with the video header and the motion vector when the single description/multiple description determining unit determines to perform transcoding into the single description and performs transcoding into the multiple descriptions by dividing the DCT coefficient into a plurality of DCT coefficients and coding each of the DCT coefficients together with the video header and the motion vector when the single description/multiple description determining unit determines to perform transcoding into the multiple descriptions.