Abstract
The rapid development and increase of multimedia applications, as well as the demand for higher video-quality services at restricted resources such as storage capacity, transmission bandwidth and power consumption, has brought the urgent need for more efficient video compression techniques. The new video coding standard high efficiency video coding (HEVC) has a significant superiority over its predecessor advanced video coding (AVC). HEVC is reported to halve the bit rate with the same visual quality, or a better quality with the same bit rate when compared with AVC. Beside other improvements, HEVC significantly gets its power from the use of dynamic hierarchical quad-tree structure by partitioning the frames into smaller regions called coding units (CU), by means of a rate–distortion optimization process. However, this improvement yields to a dramatic increase of high computational complexity and increased encoding time, which primarily restricts its adaptation in real-time applications. In this paper, we proposed an early CU determination algorithm for fast encoder realization to reduce the encoding time which is the most important part of the standard standing for development. The experimental results show that the proposed algorithm has approximately 45 % encoding time saving with a 4.6 % bit-rate increment, on average.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
High Efficiency Video Coding, ITU-T Rec.H.265 and ISO/IEC 23008-2, ITU-T and ISO/IEC JTC 1, April 2013
Advanced Video Coding for Generic Audio-Visual Services, ITU-T Rec.H.264 and ISO/IEC 14496-10, ITU-T and ISO/IEC JTC 1, May 2003
Bossen, F., Bross, B., Sühring, K., Flynn, D.: HEVC complexity and implementation analysis. IEEE Trans. Circuits Syst. Video Technol. 22(12), 1684–1695 (2012)
Sullivan, G.J., Ohm, J.-R., Han, W.-J., Wiegand, T.: Overview of the high efficiency video coding (HEVC) standard. IEEE Trans. Circuits Syst. Video Technol. 22(12), 1648–1667 (2012)
Marpe, D., Schwarz, H., Wiegand, T.: Context-based adaptive binary arithmetic coding in the H.264/AVC video compression standard. IEEE Trans. Circuits Syst. Video Technol. 13(7), 620–636 (2003)
Richardson, I.E.G.: An introduction to high efficiency video coding VCODEX video compression. [Online]. http://www.Vcodex.com/h265.html/ (2013). Accessed 7 Jan 2015
Ohm, J.-R., Sullivan, G.J., Schwarz, H., Tan, T.K., Wiegand, T.: Comparison of the coding efficiency of video coding standards—including high efficiency video coding (HEVC). IEEE Trans. Circuits Syst. Video Technol. 22(12), 1668–1683 (2012)
Jiang, W., Ma, H., Chen, Y.: Gradient based fast mode decision algorithm for intra prediction in HEVC. In: International Conference on Consumer Electronics, Communications and Networks (CECNet), pp. 1836–1840 (2012)
Tian, G., Goto, S.: Content based hierarchical fast coding unit decision algorithm for HEVC. In: Proceedings Picture Coding Symposium (PCS), pp. 56–59 (2012)
Zhang, H., Ma, Z.: Early termination schemes for fast intra prediction in high-efficiency video coding. In: IEEE International Symposium On Circuits and System (ISCAS), pp. 45–48 (2013)
Shen, L., Zhang, Z., An, P.: Fast CU size decision and mode decision algorithm for HEVC intra coding. IEEE Trans. on Consum. Electron. 59(1), 207–213 (2013)
Lu, J., Liang, F., Xie, L., Luo, Y.: A fast block partition algorithm for HEVC. In: 9th International Conference on Information, Communications and Signal Processing (ICICS), pp. 1–5 (2013)
Zhang, H., Ma, Z.: Fast intra mode decision for high efficiency video coding (HEVC). IEEE Trans. Circuits Syst. Video Technol. 24(4), 660–668 (2014)
Shen, L., Zhang, Z., Liu, Z.: Effective CU size decision for HEVC intracoding. IEEE Trans. Image Process. 23(10), 4232–4241 (2014)
Kim, I.-K., Min, J., Lee, T., Han, W.-J., Park, J.H.: Block partitioning structure in the HEVC standard. IEEE Trans. Circuits Syst. Video Technol. 22(12), 1697–1706 (2012)
Cao, X., Lai, C., Wang, Y., Liu, L., Zheng, J., He, Y.: Short distance intra coding scheme for high efficiency video coding. IEEE Trans. Image Process. 22(2), 790–801 (2013)
Marpe, D., Schwarz, H., Bosse, S., Bross, B., Helle, P., Hinz, T., Kirchhoffer, H., Lakshman, H., Nguyen, T., Oudin, S., Siekmann, M., Sühring, K., Winken, M., Wiegand, T.: Video compression using nested quadtree structures, leaf merging, and improved techniques for motion representation and entropy coding. IEEE Trans. Circuits Syst. Video Technol. 20(12), 1676–1687 (2010)
Sullivan, G., Wiegand, T.: Rate–distortion optimization for video compression. In: IEEE Signal Processing Magazine, pp. 74–90 (1998)
Wiegand, T., Sullivan, G., Bjontegaard, G., Luthra, A.: Overview of the H.264/AVC video coding standard. IEEE Trans. Circuits Syst. Video Technol. 13(7), 560–576 (2003)
Piao, Y., Min, J.H., Chen, J.: Encoder improvement of unified intra prediction, JCTVC-C207, JCT-VC of ISO/IEC and ITU-T, Guangzhou (2010)
Lovie, P.: Coefficient of variation. In: Everitt, B., Howell, D.C. (eds.) Encyclopedia of statistics in behavioral science, vol. 1, pp. 317–318. Wiley, New York (2005)
Bjøntegaard, G.: Calculation of average PSNR differences between RD curves. In: No. ITU-T SC16/Q6, VCEG-M33, Austin (2001)
JCT-VC: Subversion repository for the HEVC test model version HM14.0. [Online]. https://hevc.hhi.fraunhofer.de/svn/svn−HEVCSoftware/tags/HM-14.0/ (2014). Accessed 3 Oct 2014
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Öztekin, A., Erçelebi, E. An early split and skip algorithm for fast intra CU selection in HEVC. J Real-Time Image Proc 12, 273–283 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11554-015-0534-2
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11554-015-0534-2