Performance Analysis of H.264/AVC with In-Loop Deblocking Filter.

The H.264/AVC standard defines an optional in-loop deblocking filter. When the image is partitioned into blocks, it results in blocking artifacts due to lack of inter-correlation between blocks. This paper compares the performance of the in-loop deblocking filter of emerging H.264/AVC standard at low bit rates because these blocking artifacts has much more annoying effect at low bit rates. The filter performs simple operations to detect and analyze artifacts on coded block boundaries and attenuates those by applying a selected filter. Different sequences of low & high latency applications were used for comparison. Our test results show that H.264’s in-loop deblocking filter can significantly reduce the blocking artifacts and improve visual quality and prediction performance by smoothing the sharp edges which can form between macroblocks when block coding techniques are used. The filter aims to improve the appearance of decoded pictures.