Zero-block mode decision algorithm for H.264/AVC

  • Authors:

  • Yu-Ming Lee;Yinyi Lin

  • Affiliations:

  • Department of Communication Engineering, National Central University, Chung Li, Taiwan, R.O.C.;Department of Communication Engineering, National Central University, Chung Li, Taiwan, R.O.C.

  • Venue:
  • IEEE Transactions on Image Processing
  • Year:
  • 2009

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Abstract

In the previous paper [14], we proposed a zero-block intermode decision algorithm for H.264 video coding based upon the number of zero-blocks of 4 × 4 DCT coefficients between the current macroblock and the co-located macroblock. The proposed algorithm can achieve significant improvement in computation, but the computation performance is limited for high bit-rate coding. To improve computation efficiency, in this paper, we suggest an enhanced zero-block decision algorithm, which uses an early zero-block detection method to compute the number of zero-blocks instead of direct DCT and quantization (DCT/Q) calculation and incorporates two adequate decision methods into semi-stationary and nonstationary regions of a video sequence. In addition, the zero-block decision algorithm is also applied to the intramode prediction in the P frame. The enhanced zero-block decision algorithm brings out a reduction of average 27% of total encoding time compared to the zero-block decision algorithm.