Fast Mode Decision Using All-Zero Block Detection for Fidelity and Spatial Scalable Video Coding

In scalable video coding (SVC) as an extension of H.264/advanced video coding (AVC), a computationally expensive exhaustive mode decision is employed to select the best coding mode for each macroblock (MB). In order to reduce computational complexity, we propose a fast mode decision algorithm for SVC which uses an all-zero block (AZB) detection. Based on the empirical analysis of the inter-layer correlation of the AZB, the MB at the enhancement layer (EL) is predicted whether to be the AZB. Then, only predicted MBs are examined by the AZB detection algorithm. Since the mode decision can be terminated by detecting the AZB, we determine the processing order of the candidate modes at the EL in order to terminate the mode decision in the early stage. The proposed algorithm can be combined with other conventional fast mode decision methods in order to further reduce the computational complexity of those methods. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm can significantly speed up the encoding process, especially for low bit-rate video sequences, without deteriorating the coding efficiency of SVC.