A Rate-distortion Based Quantization Level Adjustment Algorithm in Block-based Video Compression

In this paper, a rate-distortion based quantization level adjustment （RDQLA） algorithm is presented. Based on the rate-distortion criterion, the quantization level adjustment algorithm effectively improves coding efficiency by adaptively optimizing quantization levels of the signals near the boundaries of quantization cells and adjusting quantization levels per block. In addition, it has no overhead and is fully compatible with the existing compression standards. The proposed algorithm can be applied in any block based image and video coding method. In particular, the algorithm has been verified on the platform of H.264. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm improves objective and subjective performances substantially. It is shown that the proposed algorithm has a gain of several dB comparing with the newest H.264 standard for high bit rates.