A Fast Motion-Cost Based Algorithm for H.264/AVC Inter Mode Decision

Abstract

The H.264/AVC standard achieves a high coding efficiency compared to previous standards. However, the encoder complexity results in very high computational cost due to motion estimation and macroblock mode decisions. In this paper we propose a fast mode decision for low computational complexity applications for which the rate distortion optimization mode decision becomes unacceptable. The proposed pruned mode decision method consists in a motion-cost based early termination algorithm and saves about 50% encoding time with negligible quality loss.