A new strategy to predict the search range in H.264/AVC

Motion estimation is a very time consuming part in H.264 codec. In order to reduce motion estimation time, many strategies have been used during this process. Dynamic search range is one of them. In this paper, based on the analysis of the problems existed in current algorithm, we propose a new strategy to predict motion estimation search range by using the information of image size, block mode and QP. Experiment results show that the proposed algorithm can reduce up to 16.94% of the motion estimation time and save 9.15% of the total encoding time only with 0.001 dB PSNR loss and 0.51% BitRate increment comparing with existing DSR algorithm in UMHexagon Search algorithm. In addition, this algorithm is very easy to combine with other Motion Estimation algorithms in JM.