  Adaptive live video streaming applications use a fixed predefined
configuration for the bitrate ladder with constant framerate and encoding
presets in a session. However, selecting optimized framerates and presets for
every bitrate ladder representation can enhance perceptual quality, improve
computational resource allocation, and thus, the streaming energy efficiency.
In particular, low framerates for low-bitrate representations reduce
compression artifacts and decrease encoding energy consumption. In addition, an
optimized preset may lead to improved compression efficiency. To this light,
this paper proposes a Content-adaptive Variable Framerate (CVFR) encoding
scheme, which offers two modes of operation: ecological (ECO) and high-quality
(HQ). CVFR-ECO optimizes for the highest encoding energy savings by predicting
the optimized framerate for each representation in the bitrate ladder. CVFR-HQ
takes it further by predicting each representation's optimized
framerate-encoding preset pair using low-complexity discrete cosine transform
energy-based spatial and temporal features for compression efficiency and
sustainable storage. We demonstrate the advantage of CVFR using the x264
open-source video encoder. The results show that CVFR-ECO yields an average
PSNR and VMAF increase of 0.02 dB and 2.50 points, respectively, for the same
bitrate, compared to the fastest preset highest framerate encoding. CVFR-ECO
also yields an average encoding and storage energy consumption reduction of
34.54% and 76.24%, considering a just noticeable difference (JND) of six VMAF
points. In comparison, CVFR-HQ yields an average increase in PSNR and VMAF of
2.43 dB and 10.14 points, respectively, for the same bitrate. Finally, CVFR-HQ
resulted in an average reduction in storage energy consumption of 83.18%,
considering a JND of six VMAF points.
