Efficient coding unit size selection based on texture analysis for HEVC intra prediction

Determining the best partitioning structure for a given Coding Tree Unit (CTU) is one of the most time consuming operations within the HEVC encoder. The brute force search through quadtree hierarchy has a significant impact on the encoding time of high definition (HD) videos. This paper presents a fast coding unit size decision-taking algorithm for intra prediction in HEVC. The proposed algorithm utilizes a low complex texture analysis technique based on the local range property of a pixel in a given neighborhood. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm achieves an average of 72.24% encoding time efficiency improvement with similar rate distortion performance compared to HEVC reference software HM12.0 for HD videos.