An Improved Selective Encryption for H.264 Video based on Intra Prediction Mode Scrambling

Video encryption is becoming increasingly important as multimedia applications gain more and more popularity. With a focus on the widely-used H.264 video coding standard, various encryption algorithms based on the intra prediction mode have been developed while suffering limited scrambling space and inadequate security. In this paper, the existing encryption algorithms are first analyzed with respect to the perception performance, plaintext scrambling space and key security. An encryption algorithm is then proposed by taking into account key distribution and synchronization, leading to improved encryption effect. In contrast to the existing algorithms, experiment results have shown that the proposed algorithm achieved higher security while less impact on the code length and frame rate. In addition, the computational complexity is reduced which facilitates real-time video applications.