Efficient Rate Control for H.264 using RD-Cost

A novel adaptive coding characteristic prediction scheme called RD-cost prediction model is proposed. Through this linear model and optimum bit allocation, RD-cost and texture bits budget of current basic unit can be obtained, and then the quantization parameter (QP) can be directly calculated. Simulation results show that the H.264 encoder, using the proposed algorithm, achieves a visual quality improvement up to 0.302 dB, meets better with target bit rates, produces more flat bit-rate curve and decreases more computation complexity than that using H.264 previous rate control method JVT-G012.