Implementation of H.264 Video Codec for Block Matching Algorithms

Digital video processing is a technique in which the input video sequence is compressed before being transmitted or stored. The H.264 Advanced Video Codec performs video processing with a good coding efficiency and robustness to network losses. Due to this reason it finds its application in low bit-rate Internet streaming as well as HDTV broadcast and Digital Cinema with nearly lossless coding. The H.264 codec uses block-based motion estimation techniques which reduces the time delay in determining the motion vectors. These motion estimation techniques are performed by different block matching algorithms, namely Exhaustive Search (ES), Diamond Search (DS) and Adaptive Rood Pattern Search (ARPS). The motion vectors obtained require more computation time for its implementation depending on the type of block matching algorithm used. The main objective of this paper is to validate the improved performance of the H.264 codec for various motion estimation algorithms under different motion video conditions.