Efficient inter prediction mode decision for low-power high-speed HEVC encoding

Abstract

A new algorithm is presented in this paper to reduce the computational complexity of the inter-prediction mode decision in the high efficiency video coding (HEVC) encoding. All the encoding processes are conducted on a coding unit (CU) level instead of a prediction unit (PU) and a transform unit (TU) to alleviate the huge computational burden required for PU mode and TU residual quadtree decisions. To eliminate inef-ficient computations of rate-distortion costs, a mode decision method and an early termination scheme based on the number of discrete cosine transform coefficients are exploited. For the further improvement of the processing time, a fast integer-pel motion estimation algorithm with combined early termination schemes is employed. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm provides the huge improvement on the total encoding time at the reasonable levels of the coding efficiency and visual quality.