Hybrid Mode History Table-Based Fast Mode Decision Algorithm for Mobile Devices

This paper proposes a novel scheme to significantly reduce mode decision time by predicting optimal mode candidates. Unlike previous fast mode decision algorithms computing RDcost in a pre-defined mode order, the proposed scheme predicts optimal mode candidates and calculates their RDcosts first, increasing the possibility to satisfy early-exit conditions sooner, resulting in fast mode decision. This H.264 mode decision time reduction enables small computing power mobile devices to handle H.264 encoding effectively. Extensive simulations show that, when compared with JM11.0, the proposed scheme boosts H.264 encoding speed by up to 322% with a reasonable image quality degradation.