Fast Intra Prediction Mode Decision Algorithm for H.264/AVC Video Coding Standard

H.264/AVC video coding uses the intra prediction scheme to compress the spatial redundancy. The main goal of the intra prediction is to achieve a better compression efficiency. For finding the optimal prediction modes, H.264/AVC adopts the full search algorithm in the standard. The high computation complexity of the full search algorithm makes the encoding of H.264/AVC to be difficult to meet real time applications. In this work, we propose a fast intra prediction mode decision algorithm for 4 times 4 intra blocks, which is based on the partially sampling prediction and symmetry of the adjacent angle modes, to reduce the computational complexity of the 4 times 4 block intra-prediction. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm can reduce the computation time of the intra prediction by more than 60% while maintaining similar video quality and bit rate.