The invention provides a free viewpoint video
depth map coding method and a
distortion predicting method thereof. The
distortion predicting method comprises the following steps: A1, acquiring a
stereoscopic video texture map with more than two
viewpoints and a
depth map; A2, adopting a viewpoint synthesis
algorithm to synthesize the current viewpoint to-be-coded and a middle viewpoint of the viewpoint to-be-coded, adjacent to the to-be-coded viewpoint; A3, recording composite characters of all pixels in the current to-be-coded viewpoint
depth map and generating corresponding
distortion predicting weight according to synthesis results of the step A2; A4, carrying out distortion summation for all pixels in the
coding block of a current depth map by using a distortion predicting model according to the composite characters of all pixels and the corresponding distortion predicting weight, so as to obtain total distortion. According to the invention, accuracy in predicting the distortion of the depth map during a free viewpoint video
depth map coding process can be improved, and meanwhile, the calculating complexity of a distortion predicting
algorithm in free viewpoint video
depth map coding can be lowered greatly.