Low-Complexity Hierarchical Mode Decision Algorithms Targeting VLSI Architecture Design for the H.264/AVC Video Encoder

In H.264/AVC, the encoding process can occur according to one of the 13 intraframe coding modes or according to one of the 8 available interframes block sizes, besides the SKIP mode. In the Joint Model reference software, the choice of the best mode is performed through exhaustive executions of the entire encoding process, which significantly increases the encoder's computational complexity and sometimes even forbids its use in real-time applications. Considering this context, this work proposes a set of heuristic algorithms targeting hardware architectures that lead to earlier selection of one encoding mode. The amount of repetitions of the encoding process is reduced by 47 times, at the cost of a relatively small cost in compression performance. When compared to other works, the fast hierarchical mode decision results are expressively more satisfactory in terms of computational complexity reduction, quality, and bit rate. The low-complexity mode decision architecture proposed is thus a very good option for real-time coding of high-resolution videos. The solution is especially interesting for embedded and mobile applications with support to multimedia systems, since it yields good compression rates and image quality with a very high reduction in the encoder complexity.