A Fast Intra-Mode Decision Algorithm for P-Slices in H.264/AVC Video Coding

H.264/AVC video coding has significantly improved video compression performance compared to other video coding schemes by using a variable block size and a rate-distortion optimization (RDO) technique for each macro-block. As a result, the complexity and computational load have been significantly increased, causing many difficulties for use in real-time applications. A fast intra-mode decision algorithm is proposed for reduction video compression complexity that uses an inter-mode block type for fast intra-prediction. The inter-best mode block type and the direction of the texture edge or object boundary are highly correlated at the inter-mode decision. Based on inter-best mode information, only a small number of intra-prediction modes are used. Experimental results show that this scheme can significantly improve the speed of the intra-mode search procedure with a negligible loss in the peak signal to noise ratio (PSNR) and a minimal bit rate increase.