• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SP
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• v.43 no.6 s.312
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• pp.11-19
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• 2006

The recent video coding standard H.264 employs the rate-distortion optimization (RDO) method for choosing the best coding mode; however, it causes a large amount of encoding time. Thus, in order to reduce the encoding time, we need a fast mode decision algorithm. In this paper, we propose a fast inter mode decision algorithm considering quantization parameter (QP). The occurrence of best modes depends on QP. In order to reflect these characteristics, we consider the coded block pattern (CBP) which has 0 value when all quantized discrete cosine transform (DCT) coefficients are zero. We also use the early SKIP mode decision and early $16{\times}16$ mode decision methods. By computer simulations, we have verified that the proposed algorithm requires less encoding time than the fast inter mode decision method of the H.264 reference software for the Baseline and Main profiles by 19.6% and 18.8%, respectively.

• IEIE Transactions on Smart Processing and Computing
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.231-234
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• 2016

The next-generation video coding standard known as High-Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) was developed with the aim of doubling the bitrate reduction offered by H.264/Advanced Video Coding (AVC) at the expense of an increase in computational complexity. Mode decision with motion estimation is still one of the most time-consuming computations in HEVC, as it is with H.264/AVC. Several schemes for a fast mode decision have been presented in reference software and in other studies. However, a possible speed-up in conventional schemes is sometimes insignificant for videos that have inhomogeneous spatial and temporal characteristics. This paper proposes a bypass algorithm to skip large-block-size predictions for videos where small block sizes are preferred over large ones. The proposed algorithm does not overlap with those in previous works, and thus, is easily used with other fast algorithms. Consequently, an independent speed-up is possible.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.9 no.9
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• pp.1-8
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• 2009

H.264/AVC video coding standard uses the rate distortion optimization method which determines the best coding mode for macroblock(MB) to improve coding efficiency. Whereas RDO selects the best coding mode, it causes the heavy computational burden comparing with previous standards. To reduce the complexity, in this paper, a fast intra prediction mode decision algorithm using directional gradients is proposed. The proposed algorithm is composed of 2-path structure. In the first path, $16{\times}16$ intra prediction mode is determined using directional gradients. In the second path, 3 modes instead of 9 modes are chosen for RDO to decide the best mode for $4{\times}4$ block. Finally, the two modes determined in the two-path decision process are compared to decide the final block mode. Experimental results show that the computation time of the proposed method is decreased to about 77% of the exhaustive mode decision method with negligible quality loss.

• Journal of Korea Multimedia Society
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.185-195
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• 2010

In this paper, we propose an efficient inter and intra prediction algorithms for fast encoding of H.264/AVC. First, inter prediction mode decision method decides early using temporal/spatial correlation information and pixel direction information. Second, intra prediction mode decision method selects block size judging smoothness degree with inner/outer pixel value variation and decides prediction mode using representative pixel and reference pixel. Lastly, adaptive motion search region restriction sets search region using mode information of neighboring block and predicted motion vector. The experimental results show that proposed method can achieve about 18~53% reduction compared with the existing JM 14.1 in the encoding time. In RD performance, the proposed method does not cause significant PSNR value losses while increasing bitrates slightly.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.1093-1104
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• 2014

The High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) is a new video coding standard that can provide much better compression efficiency than its predecessor H.264/AVC. However, it is computationally more intensive due to the use of flexible quadtree coding unit structure and more choices of prediction modes. In this paper, a fast intraframe coding scheme is proposed for HEVC. Firstly, a fast bottom-up pruning algorithm is designed to skip the mode decision process or reduce the candidate modes at larger block size coding unit. Then, a low complexity rough mode decision process is adopted to choose a small candidate set, followed by early DC and Planar mode decision and mode filtering to further reduce the number of candidate modes. The proposed method is evaluated by the HEVC reference software HM8.2. Averaging over 5 classes of HEVC test sequences, 41.39% encoding time saving is achieved with only 0.77% bitrate increase.

• IEIE Transactions on Smart Processing and Computing
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.235-242
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• 2016

The emerging High-Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) standard attempts to improve coding efficiency by a factor of two over H.264/Advanced Video Coding (AVC) at the expense of an increase in computational complexity. Mode decision with motion estimation (ME) is still one of the most time-consuming computations in HEVC, as it is with H.264/AVC. Thus, fast mode decisions are not only an important issue to be researched, but also an urgent one. Several schemes for fast mode decisions have been presented in reference software and in other studies. However, the conventional hierarchical mode decision can be useless when block-level parallelism is exploited. This paper proposes operation-level exploration that offers more chances for early termination. An early termination condition is checked between integer and fractional MEs and between the parts of one partition type. The fast decision points of the proposed algorithm do not overlap those in previous works. Thus, the proposed algorithms are easily used with other fast algorithms, and consequently, independent speed-up is possible.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SP
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• v.41 no.6
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• pp.165-173
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• 2004

H.264 is the newest international video coding standard that provides high coding efficiency. A macroblock in H.264 has 7 different motion-compensation block sizes in the Inter mode, and several different prediction directions in the Intra mode. In order to achieve as highest coding efficiency as possible, H.264 reference model employs complex mode decision technique based on rate-distortion (RD) optimization which requires high computational complexity. In this paper, we propose two techniques -'early SKIP mode decision' and 'selective intra mode decision' - which can further reduce the computational complexity. Simulation results show that without considerable performance degradation, the proposed methods reduce encoding time by 30% on average and save the number of computing rate-distortion cost by 72%.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics and Information Engineers
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• v.53 no.12
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• pp.141-146
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• 2016

HEVC/H.265 is the latest joint video coding standard proposed by ITU-T SG 16 WP and ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC29/WG 11. In H.265, pictures are divided into a sequence of coding tree units(CTUs), and the CTU further is partitioned into multiple CUs to adapt to various local characteristics. Its coding efficiency is approximately two times high compared to previous standard H.264/AVC. However according to the size of extended CU(coding unit) and transform block, the hardware size of PMR(prediction/mode decision/reconstruction) block within video encoder is about 4 times larger than previous standard. In this study, we propose a new less complex hardware architecture of PMR block which has the most high complexity within encoder without any noticeable PSNR loss. Using this simplified block, we can shrink the overall size the H.265 encoder. For FHD image, it operates at clocking frequency of 300 MHz and frame rate of 60 fps. And also for the test image, the Bjøntegaard Delta (BD) bit rate increase about average 30 % in PMR prediction block, and the total estimated gate count of PMR block is around 1.8 M.

• Journal of information and communication convergence engineering
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.193-198
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• 2009

The H.264/ AVC video coding standard supports the intra prediction with various block sizes for luma component and a 8x8 block size for chroma components. This new feature of H.264/AVC offers a considerably higher improvement in coding efficiency compared to previous compression standards. In order to achieve this, H.264/AVC uses the Rate-distortion optimization (RDO) technique to select the best intra prediction mode for each block size, and it brings about the drastic increase of the computation complexity of H.264 encoder. In this paper, a fast block size decision algorithm is proposed to reduce the computation complexity of the intra prediction in H.264/AVC. The proposed algorithm computes the smoothness based on AC and DC coefficient energy for macroblocks and compares with the nonparametric criteria which is determined by considering information on neighbor blocks already reconstructed, so that deciding the best probable block size for the intra prediction. Also, the use of non-parametric criteria makes the performance of intra-coding not be dependent on types of video sequences. The experimental results show that the proposed algorithm is able to reduce up to 30% of the whole encoding time with a negligible loss in PSNR and bitrates and provides the stable performance regardless types of video sequences.

• Journal of Broadcast Engineering
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.698-708
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• 2020

VVC (Versatile Video Coding), which has been developing as a next generation video coding standard. Compared to HEVC (High Efficiency Video Coding), VVC is improved by about 34% in RA (Random Access) configuration and about 30% in LDB (Low-Delay B) configuration by adopting various techniques such as recursive block partitioning structure and GPM (Geometric Partitioning Mode). But the encoding complexity is increased by about 10x and 7x, respectively. In this paper, we propose a fast decision method of GPM mode and block partitioning using directionality of block to reduce encoding complexity of VVC. The proposed method is to apply the Hough transform to the current block to identify the directionality of the block, thereby determining the GPM mode and the specific block partitioning method to be skipped in the rate-distortion cost search process. As a result, compared to VTM8.0, the proposed method reduces about 31.01% and 29.84% encoding complexity for RA and LDB configuration with 2.48% and 2.69% BD-rate loss, respectively.