Complexity Control Using Inter Mode Decision In H.264/AVC Baseline Profile
S Patharwalkar Shilpa, Prakash M. Jadhav · 2013
H.264/AVC, the latest video coding standard, outperforms the previous coding standards. It achieves better video compression since it supports new features of video coding such as a large number of intra and inter prediction macro block (MB) modes. H.264/AVC adopts rate-distortion optimization (RDO) technique to obtain the best intra and inter prediction, while maximizing visual quality and minimizing the required bit rate. However, full RD cost calculation for all intra-prediction modes and exhaustive searches for optimal motion vectors for all block sizes increase computational complexity considerably with the number of prediction modes allowed. In order to reduce the complexity, an efficient fast block mode decision algorithm is proposed. The algorithm is based on the spatial correlation of neighboring block and there priority order of occurrence which terminates RDO calculation and reduces the encoding time of video frame with allowable degradation in video quality. Experimental results show that implemented algorithm reduces the encoding time by around 20% under different bandwidth with tolerable PSNR loss of around 0.2db to 0.5 db by using x264 software encoder.