Error assisted fast mode decision in the H264 video coding standard

A new algorithm for fast mode decision in the H264 video coding standard is presented in this article. The novelty of the algorithm stems from the fact that it jointly exploits error and pixel information for mode decision as opposed to pixel only information [Lim et al., Input Document JVT‐1020, 2003]. The exploitation of error information is achieved through the use of moving averages of error cost functions as decision steps for mode selection and results in significant computational savings with similar or even better Rate Distortion performance as compared to the work performed by Lim et al. [Input Document JVT‐1020, 2003] and other techniques in the literature [Jing and Chau, Electron Lett 40 (2004); Grecos and Yang, IEEE Trans Broadcast 51 (2005); Hong et al., Proceedings of the IEEE 19th International Conference on AINA, 2005]