Early detection method of all-zero integer transform coefficients

The new H.264 video coding standard has a significant performance benefit versus older standards in compression performance. Unfortunately, it also has a considerable increase in encoder complexity. In this paper, we extend and adapt the concept of detection of all-zero quantization coefficients before transformation and quantization. A guideline for miss detection and false detection is proposed according to the principle of two-dimensional integer DCT and quantization in H.264. With this guideline, a generalized discriminant that can be applied to different integer transforms is also provided. It is the so-called early detection method of all-zero integer DCT coefficients (EDMAIDC). Simulation results demonstrate the efficiency of proposed algorithm of reducing encoding complexity while incurring no loss in quality.