An Optimized Method of Inter Modes Selection in H.264/AVC

This paper proposes a fast inter prediction mode decision method for H.264. Motion compensation residuals of macroblock are used to analyze motion characteristics of each portion, and reduce the candidate inter modes to a small subset. Compared with the exhaustive mode search, the proposed method achieves an average 63% reduction in computation time with negligible degradation in visual quality. Compared with some other fast algorithms, which involve more elaborate mechanisms, the proposed method is competitive.