Feature-based intra-prediction mode decision for H.264

A fast mode decision method for Intra prediction in H.264 is proposed in this work to reduce the encoder complexity. The proposed algorithm adopts a multi-stage sequential mode decision process that uses joint spatial and transform domain features to filter Out unlikely candidate modes and, in the final stage, a simplified rate-distortion optimization method with a rate-distortion model is applied to a very limited number of candidates. It incorporates an early termination mechanism to save computations. Experimental results are given to demonstrate that the proposed scheme achieves a speed-up factor of 10-15 as compared with the current RD optimized mode decision with little quality degradation.