Abstract: Methods and apparatus of generating a refined reference frame for inter-frame encoding by applying blur parameters to allow encoding of image frames having blurred regions are presented herein. The methods and apparatus may identify a blurred region of an image frame by comparing the image frame with a reference frame, generate a refined reference frame by applying the blur parameter indicative of the blurred region to the reference frame, determine whether to use one of the reference frame and refined reference frame to encode the image frame, and encode the image frame using the refined reference frame when determined to use the refined reference frame.

Abstract: A method and apparatus to maximize video slice size is described herein. The method packs as many macroblocks as possible within a capped-size slice, while preserving user-defined quality constraints. The probability to conform to the maximum slice size constraint may be adjusted according to a user-defined parameter. The method may be integrated into a rate control process of a video encoder. The method predicts whether encoding a macroblock with a quantization parameter exceeds a current slice size constraint. It further predicts whether encoding a given number of macroblocks with a given configuration of quantization parameters exceeds the current slice size constraint. The method then proceeds to encode the current macroblock either on a condition that encoding the given number of macroblocks with the given configuration of quantization parameters falls below the size constraint of the current slice or after determining that a new slice is needed.

Abstract: Methods and apparatus that allow encoding of video data in pipelined encoder architectures with reduced encoding performance penalty. The methods and apparatus encode video data without the need to flush the data pipeline and re-encode macroblocks, thus saving time and resulting in an increase in the encoder's throughput. In one embodiment, macroblocks are encoded in a data pipeline to form a first video slice of a plurality of video slices. Once a macroblock overshoot condition occurs, the overshooting macroblock is determined and a second video slice is formed that includes at least one of the overshooting macroblock and the encoded macroblocks without re-encoding the included overshooting macroblock and encoded macroblocks. For example, a second video slice may be formed from the overshooting macroblock, and any remaining encoded macroblocks, that do not form the first video slice.

Abstract: An apparatus and methods for controlling power consumption in video encoding obtain, before motion estimation is performed on an image frame to be encoded, information regarding an amount of the image frame to be encoded that is static with respect to a previously encoded image frame. The apparatus and methods adjust power consumption of the video encoder based on the obtained information regarding the amount of the image frame to be encoded that is static.

Abstract: Method and apparatus for encoding instantaneous decoder refresh (IDR) units are disclosed. The method includes partially encoding an IDR block as a non-IDR block, decoding the partially encoded IDF block to generate a reconstructed IDR block and fully encoding the reconstructed IDF block as an IDR block. In a first pass, an IDR unit is partially encoded (no entropy encoding) using regular encoding parameters of a non-IDR unit in the same picture. The partially-encoded IDR unit is then inverse quantized and inverse transformed to generate a reconstructed video data of the IDR unit. In the second pass, the reconstructed video data of the IDR unit is passed as an input to the prediction module and fully encoded using the IDR settings. The reconstructed IDR unit may be encoded with very high fidelity.

Abstract: A method, system, and computer program product that exploits motion hints associated with rendered video frames. These motion hints are provided to a video encoder to guide a motion-compensation prediction process performed by the video encoder. Specifically, these motion hints can be used to better position a search window in a reference video frame to better capture the motion of a block of pixels in the reference video frame. Because the search window is better positioned in the reference video frame, the memory required to perform the encoding process can be reduced without sacrificing the level of encoded image quality.