FAST H.264/AVC video encoding with multiple frame references

We focus on the question of how we can select the best multiple reference pictures for enhanced H.264 video encoding by a fast, computationally efficient method. We propose a simple histogram-similarity based method for selecting the best set of multiple reference pictures. Out-of-order coding of these frames is implemented by means of pyramid encoding. Experimental results show that the proposed approach can provide encoding time saving up to 23% with similar picture quality and bitrate for selected video sequences.