Early detection of all-zero block in H.264 with new rate-quantization models

This paper presents a new algorithm for detecting all-zero DCT coefficient blocks (AZB) prior to DCT and quantization for H.264. The early detection criterion is derived from a new rate-quantization model which is established by considering the unique features of quantization process in H.264. The proposed algorithm aims to eliminate the redundant computations in AZB and consequently speed up the encoding process of H.264 video codec. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm achieves a high detection ratio up to 95.88% while maintain a very low false detection ratio. The results confirm that a more effective AZB detection for H.264 can be achieved by taking the unique feature of quantization into consideration.