Fast mode decision for the H.264/AVC video coding standard based on frequency domain motion estimation

The H.264 video coding standard achieves high performance compression and image quality at the expense of increased encoding complexity. Consequently, several fast mode decision and motion estimation techniques have been developed to reduce the computational cost. These approaches successfully reduce the computational time by reducing the image quality and/or increasing the bitrate. In this paper we propose a novel fast mode decision and motion estimation technique. The algorithm utilizes preprocessing frequency domain motion estimation in order to accurately predict the best mode and the search range. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm significantly reduces the motion estimation time by up to 97%, while maintaining similar rate distortion performance when compared to the Joint Model software. C © 2011 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). [DOI: 10.1117/1.3597609] Subject terms: motion estimation; phase correlation; frequency domain; mode decision; H.264 advanced video coding. Paper 101102LPRR received Dec. 28, 2010; revised manuscript received May 4, 2011; accepted for publication May 17, 2011; published online Jul. 6, 2011.