Optimized Inter Prediction for H.264 Video Codec

High definition video transmission is one of the prime demands of modern day communication. Changing needs demand diverse features to be offered by the video codec standards, H.264 fits to these requirements for video compression. In this work, an attempt has been made to optimize the inter prediction along with improved intra prediction to ensure the minimal bit rates thereby reduction in the channel bandwidth, which is required in most of the wireless applications. In intraprediction, only DC prediction mode is chosen out of 9 modes with 4*4 luma blocks that reduces the coding complexity towards optimal logic utilization in order to support typical FPGA board for hardware implementation. Most significantly, Inter prediction is carried out utilizing the M9K blocks efficiently with proper timing synchronization to reduce the latency in the encoding operation. Experimental set up comprising of two Altera DE2-115 boards connected through Ethernet cable demonstrated the video transmission. These optimized intra prediction and inter prediction stages resulted in significant improvement in the video compression possessing good subjective quality and increased video compression.