A frequency-based fast block type decision algorithm for intra prediction in H.264/AVC high profile

Intra coding in H.264/AVC has significantly enhanced the video compression efficiency. However, computation complexity increases by the rate-distortion (RD) based mode decision. This paper proposes a fast block type decision algorithm which can reduce intra predictionpsilas computation complexity with slight PSNR reduction. This algorithm is based on the relation of smoothness of macroblocks (MBs) and the block type of intra prediction. This algorithm can select only one or two block types in 4 times 4, 8 times 8 and 16 times 16 intra prediction instead of three of them. Experimental results show that this algorithm is suitable to perform on video sequences in different frame sizes.