A frequency domain approach to intra mode selection in H.264/AVC

Multiple intra-mode prediction is one of the new features introduced in the emerging video standard, H.264/AVC. Its function is to further reduce spatial redundancies in an intracoded macroblock prior to conventional transform coding and entropy coding. However, the process is computationally expensive especially when Lagrangian cost evaluation is employed. In this paper, we propose a fast algorithm operating in the frequency domain to accelerate intra-frame mode selection. Extensive simulations verify that the proposed algorithm outperforms several existing methods, providing speed-ups of up to 75% with insignificant degradation in picture quality.