A fast mode decision algorithm applied in medium-grain quality scalable video coding

• Employing the mode correlations and correlation degrees jointly to predict candidate modes and possibilities.
• Developing early termination strategies based on the specific coding structure of MGS.
• Combining mode possibilities and complexities to obtain early termination conditions.

To increase the flexibility of bit stream adaptation in the H.264/Scalable Video Coding, Medium-Grain Scalable Video Coding (MGS), a variation of Coarse-Grain Scalable Video Coding (CGS), is included. The encoding structure of MGS is significantly different from that of CGS, and the encoding procedure of MGS is very complex. It is important to reduce encoding complexity without sacrificing MGS coding performance. In this paper, a fast mode decision algorithm is proposed for the enhancement layer of MGS based on its specific coding structure. First, the candidate modes and the coding sequence of the current macro-block (MB) are predicted based on mode correlations and correlation degrees. Next, early termination strategies, including Direct Mode, inter-layer, layer and spatial, and spatial-only, are proposed based on the coding structure of MGS and correlations. Finally, MBs are encoded in the order predicted with the four proposed early termination strategies to improve the coding speed. Experimental results show that the algorithm can achieve an average time saving of up to 85.44% with strong robustness and negligible loss in coding efficiency.