Rate-distortion optimization and adaptation of intra prediction filter parameters

Conventional “pixel copying” prediction used in current video standards was shown in previous work to be sub-optimal compared to 2-D non-separable Markov model based recursive extrapolation approaches. The premise of this paper is that in order to achieve the full potential of these approaches it is necessary to account for several requirements, namely, the design of prediction modes (and respective extrapolation filters) must optimize a rate-distortion cost rather than minimize the mean squared prediction error; the filters must be of sufficient complexity to cover all necessary directions; and the approach must include adaptation to available information indicative of local statistics. Hence, the proposed system employs four-tap recursive extrapolation filters that can predict from all standard directions, combined with a filter design method that accounts for the overall rate-distortion cost in conjunction with the codec decisions, along with adaptation of filter coefficients to relevant local information provided by encoder decisions on target bit rate and block size. Experimental evidence is provided for substantial coding gains over conventional intra coding.