Fast Mode Decision for H.264 Based on Rate-Distortion Cost Estimation

Abstract

A fast mode decision algorithm for an H.264 encoder is proposed which reduces computation by using a statistical dependency of macroblock rate-distortion (RD) costs. The algorithm skips the motion estimation and/or intra prediction mode decision with an adaptive threshold. The simulation results show that the proposed algorithm achieves an almost 2X speedup with negligible degradation in coding efficiency.