Study on Fast HEVC Encoding with Hierarchical Motion Vector Clustering

Abstract

In this paper, the fast encoding algorithm in High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) encoder was studied. For the encoding efficiency, the current HEVC reference software is divided the input image into Coding Tree Unit (CTU). then, it should be re-divided into CU up to maximum depth in form of quad-tree for RDO (Rate-Distortion Optimization) in encoding precess. But, it is one of the reason why complexity is high in the encoding precess. In this paper, to reduce the high complexity in the encoding process, it proposed the method by determining the maximum depth of the CU using a hierarchical clustering at the pre-processing. The hierarchical clustering results represented an average combination of motion vectors (MV) on neighboring blocks. Experimental results showed that the proposed method could achieve an average of 16% time saving with minimal BD-rate loss at 1080p video resolution. When combined the previous fast algorithm, the proposed method could achieve an average 45.13% time saving with 1.84% BD-rate loss.