The impact of complexity in the rate-distortion optimization: A visualization tool

Recently, the new video coding standard, High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC), was released. A 50% bitrate reduction at the same visual quality relative to the previous standard was achieved. These gains are partly related to tools that increase complexity such as coding decisions taken on smaller image areas or further improvements in motion compensated coding. This paper addresses the complexity issue, i.e. the execution time, and its impact when it is combined with the bitrate and distortion optimization of the video coding. Given a set of encoder configurations that restrict the encoding such that the complexity varies, an analysis including a visualization tool is proposed to help the user to select the best configuration for a specific amount of rate, distortion and complexity. A possible targeted applications are also introduced.