A quad-tree embedded compression algorithm for memory-saving DTV decoders

This paper describes an efficient and simple algorithm to compress reference frames in DTV decoders for reducing memory and I/O bandwidth requirements. The proposed quad-tree embedded algorithm can efficiently compress each macro-block to a specified bit count exactly, which can be stored at fixed location for easy retrieval. It is shown that the proposed algorithm can compress reference frames up to a compression ratio of 8:1 without significant quality degradation.