H.264 fast intra mode selection algorithm based on direction difference measure in the pixel domain

In this paper, a fast mode decision algorithm for intra prediction in the H.264/AVC is proposed. We use the characteristics of each directional prediction mode to compute the strength of directional differences in the original pixel domain to find the minimal direction error. This is the first time reported in the literature that the intrinsic differences between the real-data and the predictors of modes are used to form an algorithm for mode decision. The approach allows us to select several better candidate modes for evaluation instead of using the full search. Experimental results show that the proposed method can achieve more than 80% reduction in computation with negligible degradation in rate-distortion performance, and the results are better than other algorithms available in the literature.