EE 5359 PROJECT PROPOSAL FAST INTER AND INTRA MODE DECISION ALGORITHM BASED ON THREAD-LEVEL PARALLELISM IN H.264 VIDEO CODING Project Guide – Dr. K. R. Rao Tejas Sathe ( ) ID:

Introduction to H.264 CODEC standard: H.264/MPEG-4 Part 10 or AVC (Advanced Video Coding): Standard by the ITU-T Video Coding Experts Group (VCEG) and the ISO/IEC Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) Used for video compression, and is currently one of the most commonly used formats for the recording, compression, and distribution of high definition video A new video compression scheme that is becoming the worldwide digital video standard for consumer electronics and personal computers Significant improvement in the rate-distortion efficiency providing, typically, a factor of two in bit-rate savings when compared with existing standards A key compression scheme (codec) for the next generation of optical disc formats, HD-DVD and Blu-ray disc Block-oriented motion compensation-based codec standard One of the codec standards for Blu-ray disc, streaming internet sources, such as videos from You Tube and the iTunes Store, web software such as the Adobe Flash Player and Microsoft Silverlight, broadcast services for DVB and SBTVD, direct- broadcast satellite television services and real-time videoconferencing

H.264 profiles: 1.Baseline Profile: Real-time conversational services e.g. video conferencing and videophone 2.Main Profile: Digital storage media and television broadcasting 3.Extended Profile: Multimedia services over Internet 4.Four High Profiles: Content-contribution, content-distribution, and studio editing and post-processing Fig.1. H.264 Profiles [1]

H.264 Encoder Block Diagram: Fig.2. H.264 Encoder [1] Inter and intra prediction : To get rid of spatial and temporal redundancy, respectively within and between the frames Mode selection algorithms are used to select the best prediction mode for the current macro block within a frame 592 RDO calculations by H.264/AVC encoder : To select the best mode for one Macro block in the intra prediction. Thus, the encoder complexity is more. This project focuses on the complexity reduction of encoder using thread level parallelism technique.

Thread level Parallelism: The focus of software design and development should be changed from sequential programming techniques to parallel and multithreaded programming techniques. A multicore [6] : Architecture design that places multiple processors on a single die (computer chip). Each processor is called a core. As chip capacity increased, placing multiple processors on a single chip became practical When implemented properly, threading can enhance performance by making better use of hardware resources To take advantage of multicore processors : Understanding the details of software threading model as well as capabilities of the platform hardware Thread from hardware and software point of view [7]: 1. Software thread : A discrete sequence of related instructions that is executed independently of other instruction sequences 2. Hardware thread : An execution path that remains independent of other hardware execution paths

Goal in this project: H.264 encoder : Major complexity lies in Motion Estimation block. H.264 encoder has data dependences between the inter mode decision and the intra mode decision, especially when rate-distortion optimization (RDO) is used. Goal is to implement RDO mode decision algorithm based on thread-level parallelization for the H.264 encoder using JM reference software (version 17.2), which can efficiently resolve the dependences and exploit thread-level parallelism for fast mode decision. Use of thread-level parallelization : 1. To utilize available hardware resources efficiently 2. To achieve significant speed up in encoding Challenge : Reduction in the total encoding time without PSNR loss and bit rate increment

References: [1] Soon-kak Kwon, A. Tamhankar and K.R. Rao, “Overview of H.264/MPEG-4 part 10”, Video/Image Processing and Multimedia Communications, [2] T. Wiegand, et al “Overview of the H.264/AVC video coding standard”, IEEE Trans. on circuits and systems for video technology, vol. 13, pp , July [3] D. Marpe, T. Wiegand and G. J. Sullivan, “The H.264/MPEG-4 AVC standard and its applications”, IEEE Communications Magazine, vol. 44, pp , Aug [4] J. Kim, D. Kim, and J. Jeong, “Complexity reduction algorithm for intra mode selection in H.264/AVC video coding” J. Blanc-Talon et al. (Eds.): ACIVS 2006, LNCS 4179, pp. 454 – 465, 2006.Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, [5] Ju-Ho Hyun, “Fast mode decision algorithm based on thread-level parallelization and thread slipstreaming in h.264 video coding” Multimedia and Expo (ICME), 2010 IEEE International Conference [6] Cameron Hughes and Tracey Hughes, “Professional Multicore Programming Design and Implementation for C++ Developers”, Wiley 2010 [7] Shameem Akhter and Jason Roberts, “Multi-Core Programming Increasing Performance through Software Multi-threading”, Intel Press 2006 [8] Eric Q. Li and Yen-Kuang Chen, “Implementation of H.264 Encoder on General-Purpose Processors with Hyper-Threading Technology”, Visual Communications and Image Processing 2004, edited by Sethuraman Panchanathan, Bhaskaran Vasudev, Proc. of SPIE-IS&T Electronic Imaging, SPIE Vol [9] Bongsoo Jung, et al “Adaptive Slice-Level Parallelism for Real-Time H.264/AVC Encoder with Fast Inter Mode Selection”, Multimedia Systems and Applications X, edited by Susanto Rahardja, JongWon Kim, Jiebo Luo, Proc. of SPIE Vol. 6777, 67770J, (2007) [10] E. Richardson, “The H.264 advance video compression standard”, 2 nd Edition. Wiley 2010.

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