Enhanced Inter Mode Decision Based on Contextual Prediction for P-Slices in H.264/AVC Video Coding

We propose a fast macroblock mode prediction and decision algorithm based on contextual information for Pslices in the H.264/AVC video standard, in which the mode prediction part is composed of intra and inter modes. There are nine $4{\times}4$ and four $16{\times}16$ modes in the intra mode prediction, and seven block types exist for the best coding gain based on rate-distortion optimization. This scheme gives rise to exhaustive computations (search) in the coding procedure. To overcome this problem, a fast inter mode prediction scheme is applied that uses contextual mode information for P-slices. We verify the performance of the proposed scheme through a comparative analysis of experimental results. The suggested mode search procedure increased more than 57% in speed compared to a full mode search and more than 20% compared to the other methods.