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Group of Pictures (GOP)

Definition

The periodic structure of I-frames, P-frames, and B-frames in a compressed video stream. Each encoding generation imposes its own GOP structure. When a video is re-encoded, the second encoder's I-frames may fall at positions that reveal the prior generation's GOP period.

Related terms

DCT coefficient histogram
A histogram of the discrete cosine transform coefficients across macroblocks or coding units in a frame or clip. After a single encode,...
Double compression
The condition in which a video has been encoded at least twice through a lossy codec. The term is also used loosely...
I-frame (intra-coded frame)
A video frame that is encoded entirely from its own pixel data, without reference to any other frame. I-frames mark the start...
Inter-frame residual
The pixel-level difference between a predicted frame and the actual frame after decoding. In unmodified video, residuals at scene cuts are elevated...
Intra-refresh artefact
The elevated count of intra-coded macroblocks or CTUs at frame positions that correspond to the I-frame interval of a previous encoding generation....
Macroblock (MB) / Coding Tree Unit (CTU)
The basic spatial coding unit: 16x16 pixels in H.264 (macroblock) and up to 64x64 pixels in H.265 (CTU). Each unit is classified...
Motion vector consistency
In unmodified video, motion vectors across consecutive frames track the same objects and follow smooth trajectories. A deleted or inserted frame breaks...
P-frame (predictive frame)
A frame encoded as a set of changes relative to a preceding reference frame. P-frames are smaller than I-frames because they only...
Presentation Timestamp (PTS)
A value stored in the container for each packet indicating when that frame should be displayed. In an unmodified recording, PTS values...
Quantisation parameter (QP)
A per-block or per-slice value that controls the coarseness of the DCT coefficient rounding step in H.264 and H.265. Higher QP means...

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