Patent ID: 9743088
Date: 2017-08-22
CPC Classifications: H04N

Claim:
1. A video encoder for performing video encoding processing on each of a plurality of divided blocks of an image, the video encoder comprising: a parallel encoding processing part configured to generate encoded data including quantized orthogonal transformation coefficients of the blocks contained in block lines, the encoded data of the blocks in each of the block lines being generated in parallel with the encoded data of the blocks in a corresponding one of the block lines, each of the block lines indicating an array of the blocks; a parallel QP prediction part configured to compute prediction values of quantization parameters used to encode the blocks contained in the block lines, the prediction values of the blocks in each of the block lines being computed in parallel with the prediction values of the blocks in a corresponding one of the block lines; and a parallel entropy encoding processing part configured to entropy encode the blocks contained in the block lines utilizing the encoded data and the prediction values of the quantization parameters, the blocks in each of the block lines being entropy encoded in parallel with the blocks in a corresponding one of the block lines, wherein when the prediction value computing processing is performed on N block lines in parallel, where the N is a value of two or greater, the parallel QP prediction part performs the prediction value computing processing such that a processing block in a (K−1)th block line, which is processed in parallel with a processing block in a Kth block line, is ahead of the processing block in the Kth block line by at least one block in a horizontal position; when the processing block in the Kth block line is at a beginning of the Kth block line, the parallel QP prediction part initializes a quantization parameter of a block processed immediately before the processing block in the Kth block line with a quantization parameter defined for a slice to which the processing block in the Kth block line belongs, and computes the prediction value of the quantization parameter of the processing block in the Kth block line based on the initialized quantization parameter; when the processing block in the Kth block line is at a position other than the beginning of the Kth block line, the parallel QP prediction part computes the prediction value of the quantization parameter of the processing block in the Kth block line based on a quantization parameter of a block that has already been processed in the Kth block line; and the parallel encoding processing part determines the quantization parameters of the blocks based on the computed prediction values of the quantization parameters, the quantization parameters used to process the blocks, and information indicating whether encoding results are all zero.