H.264/SVC Mode Decision Based on Mode Correlation and Desired Mode List
This work addresses the computational bottleneck in scalable video coding for video encoding applications, representing an incremental improvement over existing methods.
The paper tackled the high computational complexity of H.264/SVC video encoding by proposing a fast mode decision algorithm that reduces redundant candidate modes using layer correlations, resulting in a 41.89% improvement in encoding time with minimal losses in PSNR (0.02dB) and bit rate (0.05%).
The design of video encoders involves the implementation of fast mode decision (FMD) algorithm to reduce computation complexity while maintaining the performance of the coding. Although H.264/scalable video coding (SVC) achieves high scalability and coding efficiency, it also has high complexity in implementing its exhaustive computation. In this paper, a novel algorithm is proposed to reduce the redundant candidate modes by making use of the correlation among layers. The desired mode list is created based on the probability to be the best mode for each block in the base layer and a candidate mode selection in the enhancement layer by the correlations of modes among the reference frame and current frame. Our algorithm is implemented in joint scalable video model (JSVM) 9.19.15 reference software and the performance is evaluated based on the average encoding time, peak signal to noise ratio (PSNR) and bit rate. The experimental results show 41.89% improvement in encoding time with minimal loss of 0.02dB in PSNR and 0.05% increase in bit rate.