Efficient coding mode decision in MPEG-4 part-10 AVC/H.264 main profile

MPEG-4 Part-10 AVC/H.264 provides much improved coding efficiency. The powerful rate-distortion optimization for adaptive motion compensation employing variable block sizes investigates all possible coding modes of a block to decide the best coding mode. This achieves highest possible coding efficiency, but it only comes at much higher computational complexity. In this paper, we propose two new techniques-'early SKIP mode decision in P- and B-slices' and 'selective intra mode decision'-which can significantly reduce the computational complexity. Simulation results verify that the proposed method makes it possible to reduce the encoding time by about 66% without any perceivable loss in coding rate and quality.