Rate-distortion optimization using structural information in H.264 strictly Intra-frame encoder

In this paper we employ Structural Similarity Index (SSIM) metric in the rate-distortion optimizations of H.264 strictly I-frame encoder to choose the best prediction mode(s). The SSIM is designed to improve on traditional metrics like PSNR and MSE, which have been proved to be inconsistent with human eye perception. The required modifications are done on the JVT reference software JM92 program. The simulation results show that there is reduction in bit rate by 3% while maintaining almost the same video quality and better encoding time.