Abstract: A method for prediction in image encoding and an image encoding apparatus applying the same are disclosed. The method includes steps of receiving a plurality of candidates with respect to a current prediction target of an image; calculating a distortion-based cost of a first candidate in the plurality of candidates; and for each of the other candidates, computing a data access availability and a data access requirement for calculating a distortion-based cost of a current candidate in the other candidates of the plurality of candidates; and if the data access requirement does not exceed the data access availability, calculating the distortion-based cost of the current candidate; otherwise, selecting the candidate with the minimum calculated distortion-based cost as a matched candidate for the current prediction target. Therefore, coding performance setback due to external memory data access is improved.

Abstract: A method for prediction in image encoding and an image encoding apparatus applying the same are disclosed. The method includes steps of receiving a plurality of candidates with respect to a current prediction target of an image; calculating a distortion-based cost of a first candidate in the plurality of candidates; and for each of the other candidates, computing a data access availability and a data access requirement for calculating a distortion-based cost of a current candidate in the other candidates of the plurality of candidates; and if the data access requirement does not exceed the data access availability, calculating the distortion-based cost of the current candidate; otherwise, selecting the candidate with the minimum calculated distortion-based cost as a matched candidate for the current prediction target. Therefore, coding performance setback due to external memory data access is improved.

Abstract: A selective motion vector prediction method and a motion estimation method and a device thereof applicable to a scalable video coding (SVC) system are disclosed. The selective motion vector prediction method includes the steps of performing an inter prediction to obtain a first motion vector prediction center; performing an inter-layer motion prediction to obtain a second motion vector prediction center; in the case the first and the second motion vector prediction center satisfying a preset condition, using the same reference data to calculate the rate-distortion costs for the inter prediction and the inter-layer motion prediction; and using the rate-distortion costs as a basis to select one of the inter prediction and the inter-layer motion prediction for applying to the SVC system. Thus, the same reference data is shared to enable reduced memory access in the process of coding and accordingly, reduced cost of and power consumption by memory access.

Abstract: A method and device for decoding a scalable video signal utilizing an inter-layer prediction are provided herein. An inter-layer pre-fetch scheme (IPS) is presented to improve the performance for scalable video coding (SVC) decoder. With proposed invention, the required information for inter-layer prediction in SVC technique will be pre-fetched ahead when reconstructing the enhancement layer so that the cache miss rate can be reduced significantly. Accordingly, the execution time and memory energy consumptions can be improved.

Abstract: A selective motion vector prediction method and a motion estimation method and a device thereof applicable to a scalable video coding (SVC) system are disclosed. The selective motion vector prediction method includes the steps of performing an inter prediction to obtain a first motion vector prediction center; performing an inter-layer motion prediction to obtain a second motion vector prediction center; in the case the first and the second motion vector prediction center satisfying a preset condition, using the same reference data to calculate the rate-distortion costs for the inter prediction and the inter-layer motion prediction; and using the rate-distortion costs as a basis to select one of the inter prediction and the inter-layer motion prediction for applying to the SVC system. Thus, the same reference data is shared to enable reduced memory access in the process of coding and accordingly, reduced cost of and power consumption by memory access.