Efficient Level and Zero Coding Methods for H.264/AVC Lossless Intra Coding

Since H.264/AVC was designed mainly for lossy video coding, the entropy coding methods in H.264/AVC are not appropriate for lossless video coding. Based on statistical differences of residual data in lossy and lossless coding, we develop efficient level and zero coding methods. Therefore, we design an improved context-based adaptive variable length coding (CAVLC) scheme for lossless intra coding by modifying the relative entropy coding parts in H.264/AVC. Experimental results show that the proposed method provides approximately 6.8% bit saving, compared with the H.264/AVC FRExt high profile.