Algorithmic Optimization for H.264 Deblocking Filter on Portable Devices

Deblocking filters are used to reduce or eliminate blocking artifacts that appear when H.264/AVC is utilized for low bit rate video coding applications such as video conferencing, Considering that the H.264/AVC deblocking filter constitutes about one-third of the decoding time, in this paper, we present two optimization steps to reduce the computational complexity of this filter. These steps involve using the mode information of decoded macroblocks and the similarity among adjacent blocks. Experimental results show that these optimization steps significantly reduce the computational complexity with tolerable loss in video quality.