Efficient fast ME predictions and early-termination strategy based on H.264 statistical characters

This paper analyzes the statistical characters on MV (motion vector) and cost function (called SAD) in ME (motion estimation) of H.264, and proposes four efficient predictions and early-termination strategy in ME, which keeps video quality while decreasing greatly computation complexity. Simulation results from QCIF format to HD (high definition) format show that the proposed method has good performance for H.264, and it is also easily be suitable to other standard platforms. This method has been adopted as part of the fast motion estimation in JVT test model.