H.264/AVC standard: A proposal for selective intra- and optimized inter-prediction

This paper seeks to provide a selective intra-prediction and optimized inter-prediction methods in H.264/AVC standard. In order to reduce the temporal and spatial redundancy more effectively, motion compensation uses variable block sizes, while directional intra-prediction investigates all available coding modes to decide the best one. When the rate–distortion (R–D) optimization technique is used, an encoder finds the coding mode having minimum R–D cost. Due to the large number of coding modes combinations, the decision process requires extremely high computation. To reduce the complexity, selective intra-prediction and optimized inter-prediction method for Standard Definition and High Definitions test sequences is proposed, when P and B pictures are analyzed. Simulation results show that the coding time is reduced more than 15% in average, depending on Quantization Parameter (QP) values, when reducing the number of intra- and inter-candidate modes. However, there is negligible loss in term signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), until bit rate values slightly fluctuate depending on QP values.