Fast mode decision for H.264 video coder using spatial and temporal homogeneity test algorithm

Abstract

In particular, H.264 supports motion estimation and compensation using different block sizes ranging from 16x16 to 4x4 luminance samples. The luminance component of each macroblock can be split into four blocks as 16x16, 16x8, 8x16, 8x8 called macroblock partitions and 8x8 partition can further be split to 8x4, 4x8 and 4x4 sub partitions and motion estimation can be performed on all of them. In JVT reference software (JM version 12.4), it adopts full search method for each block type and selects the optimal block type as the final coding mode based on the RD cost function. It provides the best coding efficiency at the cost of increased computational complexity.