Fast inter-prediction mode decision algorithm for H.264 video encoder

The latest video compression standard, H.264 (also known as MPEG-4 Part 10/AVC for Advanced Video Coding), has proven to be superior to earlier standards in terms of compression ratio, quality, bit rates and error resilience. All this is achieved at the expense of increased encoder complexity. The algorithm used in this paper is a computationally efficient mode prediction and selection approach which has the following features: (a) both the spatial and temporal information is used to achieve early termination using adaptive thresholds, (b) inclusion of a modulator capable of trading off computational efficiency and accuracy and (c) a homogenous region detection procedure for 8x8 blocks based on adaptive thresholds. Results obtained using QCIF and CIF format video sequences based on JM17.2 reference software using H.264baseline profile are shown to prove the computational efficiency of the proposed algorithm.