Low complexity inter coding scheme for Versatile Video Coding (VVC)

Abstract

The latest coding standard Versatile Video Coding (VVC) developed by the Joint Video Experts Team (JVET) and Video Coding Experts Group (VCEG) was finalized in 2020. By introducing several new coding techniques, VVC improves the compression efficiency by 50% compared with H.265/HEVC. However, the coding complexity increases dramatically, which obstructs it from real-time application. To tackle this issue, a fast inter coding algorithm utilizing coding information is proposed to speed up the coding process. First, by analyzing the coding areas of the neighboring CUs, we predict the coding area of the current CU to terminate unnecessary splitting modes. Then, the temporally optimal coding mode generated during the prediction process is further utilized to shrink the candidate modes to speed up the coding process. Finally, the distribution of neighboring prediction modes are exploited to measure the motion complexity of the current CU, based on which the unnecessary prediction modes can be skipped earlier. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method can reduce the coding complexity by 40.08% on average with 0.07 dB BDPSNR decrease and 1.56% BDBR increase, which outperforms the state-of-the-art approach.