Patent ID: 7830961

Claim:
A non-transitory medium encoded with instructions for directing one or more processors to perform a method of selecting one of a plurality of inter-modes for encoding a macroblock, the method comprising: calculating a rate-distortion value representative of the amount of distortion within the macroblock; reducing the number of potential inter-modes that are to be analyzed for the macroblock based on the rate distortion value, comprising selecting a first set of inter-modes for analysis if the rate-distortion value is below a first threshold, and selecting a second set of inter-modes for analysis if the rate-distortion value is above the first threshold and below a second threshold, the first set of inter-modes being selected from the group consisting of a skip mode, a 16×16 mode, and an 8×8 mode; identifying a first reference block and first motion vector associated with a first inter-mode; and using the first reference block and first motion vector in performing motion estimation for a second inter-mode.