Patent ID: 8358699

Claim:
A method for reference picture selection and mode decision during motion estimation of a video sequence, the video sequence comprising a plurality of video frames, each of the plurality of video frames comprising a plurality of macroblocks, wherein one of the plurality of macroblocks of a current video frame is loaded from a video frame buffer and is processed by a processing machine to perform specific tasks of the method, the method comprising: a. performing full-pixel search for each of one or more reference video frames, wherein the one or more reference video frames are a part of one or two reference lists, the full-pixel search being performed for calculating one or more full-pel rate distortion costs; b. selecting one of the one or more reference video frames, the selection based on minimum of the one or more sub-pel rate distortion costs; c. selecting a mode from one or more modes, wherein the one or more modes are used for partitioning a macroblock, the selection being performed using one of the one or more reference video frames, the one of the one or more reference video frames having minimum of the one or more full-pel rate distortion costs; d. performing interpolation for each of the one or more reference video frames of the one or two reference lists, each of the one or more reference video frames implementing the selected mode; e. performing sub-pixel search for each of the one or more reference video frames, the sub-pixel search being performed for calculating one or more sub-pel rate distortion costs; and f. selecting one of the one or more reference video frames, the selection based on minimum of the one or more sub-pel rate distortion costs.