Fast inter-prediction mode decision algorithm for HEVC

The high efficiency video coding (HEVC) is superior to the previous video coding standards in compression performance, while the computational complexity is introduced simultaneously. The complexity increases mainly due to the novel flexible partitioning scheme that allows the inter-prediction mode partition split via exhaustive rate-distortion optimization (RDO). In this paper, a fast inter-prediction mode decision algorithm is proposed, which contains adaptive threshold determination based on quantization parameter and fast inter-prediction mode partition decision. The proposed algorithm utilizes the edge information of the partition to simplify the RDO and then accelerates coding time of inter-prediction mode decision structure for the original HEVC encoder. The experimental results show that the proposed algorithm can achieve 39.5 % coding time reduction with just 1.97 % bitrate increase on average under random access condition and 35.2 % coding time reduction with just 1.89 % bitrate increase on average under low-delay B condition, compared to the original HEVC encoder.     

x265的低复杂度帧内编码快速算法

为了降低x265的帧内编码复杂度,减少编码所需时间,本文针对新一 代高效视频编码标准(HEVC)帧内编码单元(CU)划分以 及预测单元(PU)模式选择的快速算法进行研究。采用经典的差分矩阵计算纹理复杂度,提出 了一种根据当前编码单元子块的纹理复杂 相似度与其编码所需要的总比特数以及量化参数之间的关系作为提前终止CU划分的判决 条件,通过增加SATD的计算进一 步减少PU模式选择的RDO候选列表的个数从而减少率失真代价计算的快速算法。实验结果 表明,与x265的标准算法相比, 该算法在平均峰值信噪比(PSNR)仅减少0.028dB和码率平均增加1.27%的情况下,能够平均减少32.34%的帧内编 码时间。     

Fast mode decision algorithm for intra prediction in H.264/AVC with integer transform and adaptive threshold

Compared with other existing video coding standards, H.264/AVC can achieve a significant improvement in compression performances. A robust criterion named the rate distortion optimization (RDO) is employed to select the optimal coding modes and motion vectors for each macroblock (MB), which achieves a high compression ratio while leading to a great increase in the complexity and computational load unfortunately. In this paper, a fast mode decision algorithm for H.264/AVC intra prediction based on integer transform and adaptive threshold is proposed. Before the intra prediction, integer transform operations on the original image are executed to find the directions of local textures. According to this direction, only a small part of the possible intra prediction modes are tested for RDO calculation at the first step. If the minimum mean absolute error (MMAE) of the reconstructed block corresponding to the best mode is smaller than an adaptive threshold which depends on the quantization parameter (QP), the RDO calculation is terminated. Otherwise, more possible modes need to be tested. The adaptive threshold aims to balance the compression performance and the computational load. Simulation results with various video sequences show that the fast mode decision algorithm proposed in this paper can accelerate the encoding speed significantly only with negligible PSNR loss or bit rate increment. This work is supported in part by China National Natural Science Foundation (CNSF) under Project No.60572045, the Ministry of Education of China Ph.D. Program Foundation under Project No.20050698033, and by a Cooperation Project (2005.7– 2007.7) with Microsoft Research Asia.     

一种新的H.264/AVC帧内编码快速算法

针对H.264/AVC帧内编码算法采用率失真优化(RDO)算法提升编码性能导致运算复杂度增加这一问题,提出了一种新的帧内编码快速算法。该算法采用待预测块的纹理方向误差值判断待编码块的纹理特征,结合相邻块的预测模式相关性减少须遍历预测模式的数量,并结合全零块检测的提前终止判定准则加快编码速度。实验结果表明,与标准算法相比,该算法在保证输出码率和图像质量基本不变的情况下能够将帧内编码时间减少约67.2%,显著提高了H.264的帧内编码效率。     

Fast sample adaptive offset algorithm for 360-degree video coding

360-degree video is becoming popular with the development of the virtual reality(VR) technology in recent years. For this kind of video, pictures are projected to a two-dimensional plane. Standard video encoders are used for compression. Due to the projection mapping of the spherical video to the two-dimensional plane video, many conventional coding tools can be adjusted properly for better performance. As the 360-degree videos are high resolution videos, usually 8K resolution videos, the high complexity for encoding 360-degree videos is a problem to be solved urgently, especially for the latest video standard H.265/HEVC. Sample adaptive offset (SAO) is a new tool adopted in H.265/HEVC. It can reduce ringing artifacts and achieve higher coding efficiency. But it also introduces high computational complexity, especially on high resolution videos. In this paper, a fuzzy control based fast SAO method is proposed to reduce the high computational complexity in SAO encoding process according to the characteristics of the ERP format video. Compared with the original algorithm in the reference software HM 16.14, experimental results show that the proposed method can reduce about 73% SAO encoding time on average under the common test conditions with negligible loss.     

A unified rate-distortion analysis framework for transform coding: a summary

In our previous work, we have developed a rate-distortion (R-D) modeling framework H.263 video coding by introducing the new concepts of characteristic rate curves and rate curve decomposition. In this paper, we further show it is a unified R-D analysis framework for all typical image/video transform coding systems, such as EZW, SPIHT and JPEG image coding; MPEG-2, H.263, and MPEG-4 video coding. Based on this framework, a unified R-D estimation and control algorithm is proposed for all typical transform coding systems. We have also provided a theoretical justification for the unique properties of the characteristic rate curves. A linear rate regulation scheme is designed to further improve the estimation accuracy and robustness, as well as to reduce the computational complexity of the R-D estimation algorithm. Our extensive experimental results show that with the proposed algorithm, we can accurately estimate the R-D functions and robustly control the output bit rate or picture quality of the image/video encoder.     

基于模式分组的帧内预测模式快速选择算法

针对高效率视频编码(HEVC)帧内预测中增加的预测模式引起的的粗选择模式(RMD)与率失真优化(RDO)算法计算复杂度高的问题。本文充分利用候选模式集中排列第一的预测模式与最优预测模式之间的强相关性,提出了一种基于模式分组的帧内预测模式快速选择算法,有效的降低了HEVC帧内预测算法的计算复杂度。实验表明本文所提出的算法与HEVC的测试模型HM10.0相比,在保证视频质量和码率基本不变的前提下(码率仅增加了0.78%,Y-PSNR只降低了0.12dB),减少了41.8％的编码时间,提高了编码效率。     

Novel rate-distortion analysis framework for bit rate and picturequality control in DCT visual coding

The rate-distortion (R-D) behaviour of a coding system depends on both the characteristics of the input source data and the coding algorithm. The authors introduce the new concepts of characteristic rate curves and rate curve decomposition to characterise the input source data and model the coding algorithm, respectively. Based on these concepts, a novel framework for R-D analysis is developed, which serves as an alternative to the classical R-D analysis. Based on this framework, a fast algorithm is proposed to predict the R-D curve before quantisation and coding. The proposed algorithm has very low computational complexity. However, in the extensive simulations, its relative prediction error is always less than 5%, which is very small. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first algorithm which is able to accurately estimate the R-D curve before quantisation and coding. With the estimated R-D curve, it is possible to accurately control the output bit rate and picture quality for transform coding of still images and video sequences. In practical visual coding applications, with the proposed R-D estimation algorithm, the coding bit rate can be accurately matched to the available network bandwidth to guarantee the successful transmission of the coded image/video data     

基于视频序列相关性的H.264快速模式选择算法

为了实现尽可能高的编码效率，H．264采用了基于率失真优化的编码模式选择技术，然而为每一种编码模式都计算率失真代价极大的增加了编码时间。为了降低编码时间，提出了一种H．264快速模式选择算法，其主要思想是根据图像序列在时间以及空间上的相关性，为当前编码宏块预测一个编码模式子集，并仅对子集中的模式进行编码以及率失真优化，同时采用了适当的策略来避免由于不精确预测所带来的误差扩散。仿真结果表明，本算法平均减少了56％的编码时间，同时PSNR值平均下降0．13dB，最大下降不超过0．19dB。     

H.264的帧间宏块模式选择算法

H.264中定义了7种不同大小的帧间宏块模式,为了提高编码效率,编码时对每一种宏块模式都进行运动搜索,并利用率失真优化(RDO)分别计算编码代价,选择编码代价最小的模式作为帧间编码模式,但是计算量非常大,导致运动估计速度缓慢,很难实现实时编码。本文提出一种选择宏块模式的快速算法,通过宏块模式编码代价的比较,提前确定宏块模式,从而逐步减少不必要的宏块搜索和RDO计算。实验结果表明,此方法与全宏块模式搜索相比较,图像质量和码流只有少量变化,而编码速度有显著提高。     

3D-HEVC深度图帧内预测快速编码算法

三维高效视频编码在产生了高效的编码效率的同时也是以大量的计算复杂性作为代价的。因此为了降低计算的复杂度,本文提出了一种基于深度学习网络的边缘检测的3D-HEVC深度图帧内预测快速算法。算法中首先使用整体嵌套边缘检测网络对深度图进行边缘检测,而后使用最大类间方差法将得到的概率边缘图进行二值化处理,得到显著性的边缘区域。最后针对处于不同区域的不同尺寸的预测单元,设计了不同的优化方法,通过跳过深度建模模式和其他某些不必要的模式来降低深度图帧内预测的模式选择的复杂度,最终达到减少深度图的编码复杂度的目的。经过实验仿真的验证,本文提出的算法与原始的编码器算法相比,平均总编码时间可减少35%左右,且深度图编码时间平均大约可减少42%,而合成视点的平均比特率仅增加了0.11%。即本文算法在可忽略的质量损失下,达到降低编码时间的目的。     

H.265解码器去块滤波并行化设计与性能优化

H.265继续沿用H.264编码架构,去方块滤波器也是H.265视频编码标准的一个重要选项,去除混合编码带来的块效应极大改善了视频的质量,但由于H.265超级宏块的存在,去方块效应滤波相关参数层层嵌入在每个小的处理单元中,这种结构不利于实现基于宏块行间的并行化,同时也很难高效地利用Cortex-A9架构SIMD优化性能.首先详细分析H.265标准去块滤波器的处理过程以及并行处理的困难,进而提出一种便于实现基于宏块行间的并行去块滤波结构,然后进行Cortex-A9汇编优化.基于HM14.0实验,改进去方块效应滤波器计算复杂度从占整个解码器25％降至14％,大大提升了解码器性能,为移动设备上实现H.265大分辨率视频实时播放奠定基础.     

结合深度信息的多视点视频编码快速模式选择算法

多视点视频加深度(MVD,multi-view video plus depth)的编码格式包含多个纹理视频序列及其对应的深度图,深度图与对应的纹理视频具有相似的边缘信息。传统的编码模式不考虑两者的联系,单独编码导致复杂度高、编码时间过长。因此,合理利用深度图与纹理图的相似性进行编码,可以有效降低编码复杂度,同时应该确保编码质量不受影响。本文利用深度图的这一特点辅助纹理视频的编码,提出一种帧间快速模式选择算法,充分利用深度图与纹理图之间的相似性,建立一种联合复杂度模型,根据模型得到每个宏块的复杂度。对于复杂度低的宏块,在计算率失真代价之前跳过编码中一些不必要的模式,从而降低编码复杂度。实验表明,本文提出的快速模式选择算法,在保证率失真性能基本不变的情况下,能减少60.57%的编码复杂度,并最高能减少80.64%的编码时间。     

Adaptive quantization parameter selection for low-delay HEVC via temporal propagation length estimation

Rate Distortion Optimization (RDO) is employed in High-Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) to enhance its coding efficiency. Owing to its coding complexity, RDO is traditionally performed within each frame with fixed quantization parameters (QPs), without fully considering the coding dependencies between the current frame and future frames within a temporal propagation chain. To improve the coding efficiency of HEVC, it is desirable to perform a global RDO among consecutive frames while maintaining a similar coding complexity. To address this problem, in this paper, temporal dependencies are first measured via a model for the energy of prediction residuals that enables the formulation of the global RDO in low-delay (LD) HEVC. Second, the notion of propagation length is introduced, which is defined as the impact length of the current frame on future frames. This length is estimated via offline experiments and used to propose two novel methods to predict the impact of the coding distortion of the current frame on future frames from previous frames of similar coding properties. Third, we apply these two methods to adaptively determine the Lagrangian multiplier and its corresponding QP for each frame in the LD configuration of HEVC. Experimental results show that, in comparison to the default LD HEVC, the first method can achieve, on average, BD-rate savings of 5.0% and 4.9% in low-delay-P (LDP) and low-delay-B (LDB) configurations, respectively, and the second can achieve, on average, BD-rate savings of 4.9% and 4.9% in the LDP and LDB configurations, respectively, all with insignificant increases in encoding time.     

Low complexity encoder optimization for HEVC

High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) improved the coding efficiency significantly. Compared to its predecessor H.264/AVC, it can provide equivalent subjective quality with more than 57% bit rate reduction. However, the improvement on coding efficiency is obtained at the expense of much more intensive computation complexity. In this paper, based on an overall analysis of computation complexity at the HEVC encoder, a low complexity encoder optimization scheme is proposed by reducing the number of available candidates for evaluation in terms of the intra prediction mode decision, early termination of coding unit (CU) splitting and adaptive reference frame selection. With the proposed scheme, the rate distortion optimization (RDO) technique of HEVC can be implemented in a low-complexity way for complexity-constrained encoders. Experimental results demonstrate that, compared with the original HEVC reference encoder implementation, the proposed optimization scheme can achieve more than 40% complexity reduction on average with coding performance degradation as only 0.43% which can be ignorable.     

Fast mode-decision for H.264/AVC based on inter-frame correlations

The H.264/AVC standard yields higher coding efficiency rates than other video coding standards. This is because it uses the rate-distortion optimization (RDO) technique, which selects the optimal coding mode and a reference frame for each macroblock (MB). In order to achieve this, the encoder has to encode a given block by exhaustively using all kinds of combinations (including different intra and inter-prediction modes). As a result, the computational complexity of video coding in H.264/AVC is extremely high. In this paper, two fast intra-/inter-mode-decision algorithms are proposed to reduce the complexity of the encoder. Both of these algorithms are based on the inter-frame correlation among adjacent pictures. For the fast intra-mode-decision, we used the intra-mode of the most-correlated MB at the reference frame to encode the current MB and the stationary property of the current MB was used for the fast inter-mode-decision. The simulation results show that the proposed algorithms significantly reduced the computational complexity with a negligible loss of PSNR and a slight increase in bitrate.     

基于整型运算的H.264率失真快速估计算法

在H.264视频编码标准中,为了达到失真性能与压缩效率之间的合理折衷,在模式选择过程中一般采用率失真优化的方法来得到最优模式,但复杂度较高。文中提出一种失真与速率的快速估计算法,在保持率失真性能基本不变的条件下,节省了约38%的模式选择时间,且运算过程全部为整型运算,易于在嵌入式平台上实现。     

基于SSE和SSIM的H.264帧内预测模式选择改进算法

在H.264的帧内预测模式选择过程中,率失真优化(RDO)的失真测度用当前编码块和预测块之间的平方误差和(SSE)或绝对误差和(SAD)来度量,而这两种失真测度被证明不能很好地符合人眼视觉(HVS)。该文参考软件JM16.2,提出了联合SSE和结构相似度(SSIM)作为失真测度用于RDO的方法(CSSRDO)。算法首先找到SSIM和码率的近似关系, 然后综合以SSE作为失真测度的RDO函数,并结合人眼视觉特性,建立了联合SSE和SSIM作为失真测度的RDO模型。实验表明,将CSSRDO用于H.264帧内预测模式选择获得了比JM16.2更高的编码效率和更好的重建图像质量。     

基于纹理方向和空域相关的HEVC帧内快速编码算法

为了降低高效视频编码(HEVC)的复杂度,提出了一种基于纹理方向和空域相关性的帧内快速编码算法。一方面,利用相邻编码单元(CU,coding unit)的最佳分割尺寸确定相关性的权重,并根据已编码CU的率失真代价值定义了CU分割尺寸的相关性因子,通过比较该因子提前终止CU分割;另一方面,利用Sobel算子求取预测单元(PU,prediction unit)子块的纹理方向,通过判定其纹理方向显著性确定相应的候选模式集,然后根据PU大小对所得的预测模式修正处理,最后遍历这些候选模式选取最优模式。实验结果表明:本文算法相对于原始HEVC编码方法,在全I帧模式下编码时间平均减少36.84%,BDBR(Bjntegaard delta bit rate)上升约0.81%,BDPSNR(Bjntegaard delta peak signal-to-noise rate)降低了0.047dB。     

一种基于零块分布的快速帧间模式判决算法

针对新一代视频编码标准离散视编码(HEVC)帧间预 测编码计算复杂度过高的问题,提出一种利用变换量化 后零块分布特征进行快速帧间模式筛选的低复杂度算法。首先统计SKIP和帧间 2N×2N模式下零系数与 非零系数的区域分布特征,判断其运动特征和运动估计匹配效果,用以分析全零块下SKIP 模式的分布;同 时在非全零块下结合残差块的SATD代价分类筛选PU模式分布,从而优先选择符合零块分布 特征的PU 模式,以达到快速筛选帧间模式,降低计算复杂度的效果。实验结果表明,在低延迟和随机 访问配置条件下,本文提出的算法在保证编码性能的情况下,相比原有HM 快速算法, 编码时间平均分别可减少50.3和49.3%,BDBR仅降低0.03%,有效 地降低了编码复杂度。