DCT/DST-Based Transform Coding for Intra Prediction in Image/Video Coding

In this paper, we present a DCT/DST based transform scheme that applies either the conventional DCT or type-7 DST for all the video-coding intra-prediction modes: vertical, horizontal, and oblique. Our approach is applicable to any block-based intra prediction scheme in a codec that employs transforms along the horizontal and vertical direction separably. Previously, Han, Saxena, and Rose showed that for the intra-predicted residuals of horizontal and vertical modes, the DST is the optimal transform with performance close to the KLT. Here, we prove that this is indeed the case for the other oblique modes. The optimal choice of using DCT or DST is based on intra-prediction modes and requires no additional signaling information or rate-distortion search. The DCT/DST scheme presented in this paper was adopted in the HEVC standardization in March 2011. Further simplifications, especially to reduce implementation complexity, which remove the mode-dependency between DCT and DST, and simply always use DST for the 4 × 4 intra luma blocks, were adopted in the HEVC standard in July 2012. Simulation results conducted for the DCT/DST algorithm are shown in the reference software for the ongoing HEVC standardization. Our results show that the DCT/DST scheme provides significant BD-rate improvement over the conventional DCT based scheme for intra prediction in video sequences.