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An Ecient Mode Decision Algorithm for
Combined Scalable Video Coding
Tae-Jung Kim, Bo-Seok Seo, and Jae-Won Suh
Chungbuk National University, College of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
12 Gaeshin-dong, Heungduk-gu, Chongju, Korea
taejung@cbnu.ac.kr, boseok@cbnu.ac.kr, sjwon@cbnu.ac.kr
Abstract. Scalable video coding (SVC) is an extension of H.264/AVC
that is used to provide a video standard for scalability. Scalability refers
to the capability of recovering physically meaningful image or video infor-
mation by decoding only partial compressed bitstreams. Scalable coding
is typically accomplished by providing multiple layers of a video, in terms
of quality resolution, spatial resolution, temporal resolution, or combi-
nations of these options. To increase the coding eciency, SVC adapts
the inter layer prediction which uses the information of base layer to
encode the enhancement layers. Due to the inter layer prediction, the
computational complexity of SVC is much more complicated than that
of H.264/AVC, such as mode decision based on rate-distortion optimiza-
tion (RDO) and hierarchical bi-directional motion estimation. In this pa-
per, we propose a fast mode decision algorithm for combined scalability
to reduce the complexity. Experimental results show that the proposed
algorithm achieves up to a 48% decrease in the encoding time with a
negligible loss of visual quality and increment of bit rates.
Keywords: Scalable video coding, Fast mode decision, Combined scal-
ability, H.264/AVC SE.
1
Introduction
The communication channels comprising a modern network span a broad band-
width range. Therefore, the compressed bitstreams created for particular
resource may not be satisfactory, ecient, or useful for servicing users with
different resource capacities. To support these flexible requirements, SVC has
been adopted as an amendment to H.264/AVC [1] and finalized as an exten-
sion to H.264/AVC video standard [2]. SVC simultaneously generates singe base
layer and several enhancement layers during the encoding procedure. The basic
coding information is encoded as a base layer with reduced resolution, frame
rate, and quality, which can be used for mobile devices. The enhancement layers
supported by base layer provide a high quality service.
To increase the coding eciency, H.264/AVC adapts several advanced cod-
ing techniques, such as mode decision for macroblock (MB) coding, 4
4inte-
ger discrete cosine transform (DCT), content adaptive binary arithmetic coding
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