Analysis and Optimization of UB Video's H.264 Baseline Encoder Implementation on Texas Instruments' TMS320DM642 DSP

Abstract

The high coding efficiency enabled by the H.264 standard comes with substantially greater algorithmic complexity as compared to that of existing standards. This additional complexity complicates very much the implementation and optimization tasks. However, efficient implementations on different platforms exist that achieve real-time constraints in several video applications. One such good example is UB Video's implementation of an H.264 Baseline encoder on the Texas Instruments' TMS320DM642 (DM642) Digital Signal Processor, which can achieve good speed-quality trade-offs in video conferencing applications. In this work, we analyze and optimize UB Video's implementation of its H. 264 Baseline encoder on the DM642. As a result, we have been able to improve memory transfer efficiency and reduce execution time, reducing the total number of encoder cycles by 18% without any loss in video quality.