PROGRAMMABLE AND SCALABLE INTEGER SEARCH FOR VIDEO ENCODING

Methods and systems for efficient searching of candidate blocks for inter-coding and/or intra coding are provided. In one innovative aspect, an apparatus for performing motion estimation is provided. The apparatus includes a processor configured to identify a number of candidate blocks of a frame of video data to be searched, at least one candidate block corresponding to a block of another frame of the video data. The processor is further configured to select one or more of the candidate blocks to search based on a distance between the candidate blocks. The processor is also configured to select a method for searching the selected candidate blocks based on a format of the video data. The processor is also configured to estimate the motion for the block of the another frame based on the selected method and the selected candidate blocks.