Fast Mode Prediction for the Baseline and Main Profiles in the H.264 Video Coding Standard

We propose a novel fast mode decision scheme for both the baseline and main profiles of the H.264 video coding standard. Our scheme combines a set of conditions for SKIP mode decision, two heuristics that reduce the set of intermodes to be examined, inter/intramode prediction and the monotonicity property of the cost functions. For very similar RD performance, we achieve (33%-90%) reduction in run times as compared to H.264. Compared to other work that was used as input to the standard, our scheme is faster by 9-23% for very similar RD performance. The proposed scheme can be used either in its entirety or as individual components for speeding up the standard. It can be also used in conjunction with fast motion search methods and is applicable in both the rate controlled and non rate controlled cases of H.264.