Fast Macroblock Mode Selection Algorithm for Multiview Video Coding

Multiview video coding (MVC) plays an important role in three-dimensional video applications. Joint Video Team developed a joint multiview video model (JMVM) in which full-search algorithm is employed in macroblock mode selection to provide the best rate distortion performance for MVC. However, it results in a considerable increase in encoding complexity. We propose a hybrid fast macroblock mode selection algorithm after analyzing the full-search algorithm of JMVM. For nonanchor frames of the base view, the proposed algorithm halfway stops the macroblock mode search process by designing three dynamic thresholds. When nonanchor frames of the other views are being encoded, the macroblock modes can be predicted from the frames of the neighboring views due to the strong correlations of the macroblock modes. Experimental results show that the proposed hybrid fast macroblock mode selection algorithm promotes the encoding speed by 2.37 ￠ € ‰ ￠ ￠ € ‰9.97 times without noticeable quality degradation compared with the JMVM.