Performance and computational complexity optimization in configurable hybrid video coding system

In this paper, a configurable coding scheme is proposed and analyzed with respect to computational complexity and distortion (C-D). The major coding modules are analyzed in terms of computational C-D in the H.263 video coding framework. Based on the analyzed data, operational C-D curves are obtained through an exhaustive search, and the Lagrangian multiplier method. The proposed scheme satisfies the given computational constraint independently of the changing properties of the input video sequence. A technique to adaptively control the optimal encoding mode is also proposed. The performance of the proposed technique is compared with a fixed scheme where parameters are determined by off-line processing. Experimental results demonstrate that the adaptive approach leads to computation reductions of up to 19%, which are obtained with test video sequences and compared to the fixed, while the peak signal-to-noise ratio degradations of the reconstructed video are less than 0.05 dB.