A fast motion estimation optimization for H.264/AVC encoder

Compared with previous video standards, the computational complexity of H.264/AVC is extraordinarily high due to newly adopted tools such as variable block size motion estimation. A fast motion estimation scheme based on H.264 is proposed in this paper. Firstly it predicts the motion range of the current block based on the computed RDO value character and the relation between the collocated blocks. Then based on this, variable search masks are applied in the following search steps. This scheme consists of the improved initial search point, search pattern, search range and match criterion. The experiment result shows that the method can save about 30% encode time compared to the current fast algorithms in the latest JM(Joint Model reference) software, while achieve almost the same PSNR as the full search algorithm.