A Novel Fast Inter Mode Decision Algorithm for H.264/AVC

Abstract

The variable block sizes introduced by H264/AVC in mode decision lead to high coding efficiency but increase encoding complexity extremely. To reduce the complexity of encoder, we propose a novel fast inter-frame mode decision algorithm based on the statistical proportion of each encoding mode. Firstly, check whether the current macro-block is at the skip mode in terms of its characteristics. If so, the number of encoding modes can be reduced. Secondly, exploit the correlation between the mode decision and the quantization parameter to further cut down the encoding modes. Experimental results show the proposed algorithm can reduce the encoding time up to 31.1-76.1% with almost the same bit-rate and less PSNR degradation.