Fast Intra-mode Decision Algorithm for HEVC Based on Texture Direction

To improve the coding efficiency of intra frame, a quad tree-based variable block size coding structure which is flexible to adapt to various texture characteristics of images and up to 35 intra prediction modes are adopted in the latest High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) standard. To further alleviate the encoder computation load, this paper proposes a fast intra mode decision algorithm based on texture direction. In the paper, the original multiple mode candidates for each prediction unit are reduced with its texture direction. The simulation results show that the proposed algorithm could reduce around 30% encoding time in average while maintaining the encoding performance efficiently with only 0.7% increase in BD-rate compared to the test model HM10.0 of HEVC.