%0 Journal Article %F dvmmPub65 %A Eleftheriadis, Alexandros %A Anastassiou, Dimitris %T Optimal Data Partitioning of MPEG-2 Coded Video %J IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems for Video Technology, 2000 %X We analyze the problem of optimal data partitioning of MPEG-2 coded video in an op- erational rate-distortion context. The optimal algorithm is characterized and shown to have high complexity and delay. A causally optimal algorithm based on Lagrangian optimization is proposed, that optimally solves the problem for intra (I) pictures, while it provides an op- timal solution for predicted/interpolated (P/B) pictures when the additional constraints of causal operation and/or low-delay are imposed. A memoryless version of the algorithm, the- oretically optimal for intra-pictures only, is shown to perform almost identically but with sig- ni cantly less computational complexity. Finally, a fast, suboptimal algorithm using purely rate-based optimization is also proposed, and is shown to perform quite close (within 1 dB) to the causally optimal one. Experimental results are provided using actual MPEG-2 coded video bitstreams %U http://www.ee.columbia.edu/dvmm/publications/99/csvt98.pdf %D 2000