Fast mode decision algorithm through inter-view rate-distortion prediction for multiview video coding system

Multiview video coding (MVC) has attracted great attention from industries and research institutes. MVC is used to encode stereoscopic video streams for 3D playout systems such as 3D television, digital cinema, and IP network applications. MVC is an extended version of H.264/AVC that improves the performance of multiview videos. Yet, when compared with single-view video coding, MVC consumes much more time when encoding large amounts of data. Speed-up algorithms, therefore, are essential for realizing related applications. This paper presents a fast mode decision algorithm to avoid the high computational complexity of MVC. The proposed approach aims to reduce candidate modes and make mode decision process more efficient. The minimum and maximum values of rate-distortion cost (RD cost) in the previously encoded view are used to compute a threshold for each mode in the current view. Compared with joint multiview video coding, the experimental results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm provides an average of 79% in time savings with negligible bit rate increase and peak signal-to-noise ratio decrease.