Efficient coding unit size selection based on texture analysis for HEVC intra prediction

Determining the best partitioning structure for a given Coding Tree Unit (CTU) is one of the most time consuming operations within the HEVC encoder. The brute force search through quadtree hierarchy has a significant impact on the encoding time of high definition (HD) videos. This paper presents a fast coding unit size decision-taking algorithm for intra prediction in HEVC. The proposed algorithm utilizes a low complex texture analysis technique based on the local range property of a pixel in a given neighborhood. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm achieves an average of 72.24% encoding time efficiency improvement with similar rate distortion performance compared to HEVC reference software HM12.0 for HD videos.

1. Introduction

Cisco's Data Traffic forecast statistics show that 80–90% of the global Internet traffic will be video data by 2017, and a significant proportion of the above percentage will be high definition content [1]. Hence improved video compression techniques are required in order to handle this large amount of video data that will dominate consumer networks. High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC), which was standardized in early 2013, intends to cater for these upcoming video compression requirements with its added features and improved efficiency. HEVC is the latest video coding standard produced by Joint Collaborative Team on Video Coding (JCT-VC). It is a partnership between two prominent international organizations specifying video coding standards, namely ITU-T Video Coding Experts Group (VCEG) and ISO/IEC Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) [2].