• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
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• v.32 no.8C
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• pp.729-737
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• 2007

The H.264/AVC video coding standard provides higher coding efficiency compared to the conventional MPEG-2 standard. Since a lot of videos have been encoded using MPEG-2, the format conversion from MPEG-2 to H.264 is essential. In this paper, we propose an efficient method for the conversion of DCT coefficients to H.264/AVC transform coefficients. This conversion is essential, since $8{\times}8$ DCT and $4{\times}4$ integer transform are used in MPEG-2 and H.264/AVC, respectively. The mathematical analysis and computer simulation show that the computational complexity of the proposed algorithm is reduced compared to the conventional algorithm, while the loss caused by the conversion is negligible.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
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• v.31 no.3C
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• pp.271-278
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• 2006

Rate-constrained coding is one of the many coding-efficiency oriented tools of H.264/AVC, but mode decision process of RDO(Rate distortion optimization) requires high computational complexity. Many fast mode decision algorithms have been proposed to reduce the computational complexity of mode decision. In this paper, we propose two algorithms for reduction of mode decision in H.264/AVC, which are the fast reference frame selection and selective intra prediction mode decision. Fast reference frame selection is efficient for inter predication and selective intra prediction mode decision can effectively reduce excessive calculation load of intra prediction mode decision. The simulation results showed that the proposed methods could reduce the encoding time of the overall sequences by 44.63% on average without any noticeable degradation of the coding efficiency.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Broadcast Engineers Conference
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• 2012.07a
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• pp.37-39
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• 2012

ITU-T와 ISO/IEC의 공동 작업으로 제정된 H.264/AVC는 기존 비디오 표준들에 비해 동일한 화질에서 약 30%~70%의 비트 량을 절감할 수 있으며, 동일한 비트 량으로 PSNR이 2~3dB 가량 우수한 영상을 제공할 수 있다. H.264/AVC는 인트라 부호화 효율을 높이기 위해 공간 영역에서 주변 화소를 이용하여 $4{\times}4$ luma 예측의 9가지 모드와 $16{\times}16$ luma 예측의 4가지 모드에 대한 비트율-왜곡 최적화 기법을 사용하여 최적의 인트라 예측 모드를 선택한다. 본 논문에서는 $4{\times}4$ luma 예측에서 발생하는 정보량을 줄이기 위해 사용하는 MPM을 기존의 방법과는 다르게 연산을 통해 상관도를 높임으로써 보다 정확한 MPM 결정으로 부호화 효율을 높이는 방법을 제안하였다. 실험결과, 제안한 방법은 기존의 방법과 비교하여 BD-RATE 평균 약 -1.4%의 성능 개선 효과를 보였다.

• Journal of Broadcast Engineering
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• v.10 no.4 s.29
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• pp.515-527
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• 2005

A next-generation codec should be developed to be a scalable video codec(SVC) that not only maximizes the coding efficiency but also adaptively copes with the various communication devices and the variation of network environments. To meet these requirements, Joint Video Team (JVT) of ISO/IEC and ITU-T is standardizing H.264/AVC based SVC. In this paper, we introduce research directions and status on SVC standardization and also analyze techniques and algorithms adopted in the current SVC.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
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• v.33 no.10C
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• pp.820-828
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• 2008

In order to achieve high coding efficiency, H.264/AVC video coding standard adopts the techniques such as variable block size coding, motion estimation with quarter-pel precision, multiple reference frames, rate-distortion optimization, and etc. However, these coding methods have a defect to greatly increase the complexity for motion estimation. Particularly, from multiple reference frame motion estimation, the computational burden increases in proportion to the number of the searched reference frames. Therefore, we propose the method to reduce the complexity by controlling the number of the searched reference frames in motion estimation. Proposed algorithm uses the optimal reference frame information in both $P16{\times}16$ mode and the adjacent blocks, thus omits unnecessary searching process in the rest of inter modes. Experimental results show the proposed method can save an average of 57.31% of the coding time with negligible quality and bit-rate difference. This method also can be adopted with any of the existing motion estimation algorithm. Therefore, additional performance improvement can be obtained.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
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• v.34 no.7C
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• pp.681-686
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• 2009

In H.264/Ave, an intra prediction added to the P-frame coding slightly improves both of image quality and bit rate, but greatly increases an amount of computation. In order to reduce the increase in computation, this paper proposes an image contents based intra prediction coding using characteristics that the best intra block mode depends on the image content of a macro block. The proposed algorithm estimates the image content with image complexity and the best inter block mode, and then selects or excludes a intra block mode on the basis of it. The simulation results show that the proposed algorithm reduces average O.OldB in image quality, and increases average 0.38% in the bit rate, but reduces average 37.02% in computation time compared with the conventional algorithm.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SP
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.80-92
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• 2008

Many predominant video coding tools in terms of coding efficiency were adopted in the latest video coding standard, H.264/AVC. Regardless of development of these predominant video coding tools such as the variable block-size motion estimation/compensation, intra prediction based on various directions, and so on, the discrete cosine transform has been continuously used starting from the early video coding standards. Generally, the correlation coefficient of the residual signal is usually less than 0.5 when this residual signal is actually encoded. In this interval of correlation coefficient, the discrete cosine transform does not show the optimal coding gain, and the discrete sine transform which is a sub-optimal transform when the correlation coefficient is in the interval from -0.5 to 0.5 can be used in conjunction with the discrete cosine transform in the video coding. In this paper, an alternative transform that alternatively uses the discrete sine transform and integer cosine transform in H.264/AVC by using rate-distortion optimization is proposed. The proposed method achieves a BD-PSNR gain of up to 0.71 dB compared to H.264/AVC JM 10.2 at relatively high bitrates.

• 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 Broadcast Engineering
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.249-260
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• 2013

Recently, High-Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) has been developed as a new video coding standard mainly focusing on the coding of ultra high definition (UHD) videos as the high resolution and high quality videos are getting more popular. Furthermore, the scalable extension of HEVC is being standardized for more efficient provision of HD and UHD services in the communications-broadcasting convergence environment. In this paper, we propose an improved scalable video coding method of H.264/AVC to achieve high coding efficiency particularly for UHD and HD videos. The basic idea is to allow large block size in H.264/AVC SVC, which results in more efficient inter-layer prediction and syntax elements coding. The experimental results show that it achieves an average 4.53% reduction in BD-rate relative to H.264/AVC SVC.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2005.10b
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• pp.189-191
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• 2005

In the scalable extension of H.264/AVC, the codec is based on a layered approach to enable spatial scalability. In each layer, the basic concepts of motion compensated prediction and intra prediction are employed as in standard H.264/AVC. Additionally inter-layer prediction algorithm between successive spatial layers is applied to remove redundancy. In the inter-layer prediction, as the prediction we can use the signal that is the upsampled signal of the lower resolution layer. In this case, coding efficiency can be variable as the kinds of interpolation filter. In this paper, we investigate the approach to select the interpolation filter for residual signal in order to optimal prediction.