A Novel Inter Mode Decision Algorithm for H.264/AVC

A fast inter mode decision algorithm for H.264 is proposed in this paper. Computational savings are achieved by identifying macroblocks (MBs) that are likely to be skipped in advance. This early prediction are made by three steps: 1) Based on the correlation of MBs and threshold, prior to motion estimation (ME), SKIP mode can be decided; 2) After ME, if the distortion for SKIP is less than or equal to other modes, SKIP mode is selected; 3) A rate estimation model is also proposed, the computation on rate-distortion is reached and the SKIP mode can be decided too. A fast intra mode decision algorithm for P Slices is proposed too. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm can drastically reduce the encoding time with only little quality degradation.