A most probable scan mode decision for H.264/AVC inter picture coding

Video coding standard H.264/AVC employs zig-zag scan and field scan to map transform coefficients from two dimensional matrix to one dimensional array. The zig-zag scan is used for transform coefficients in frame macroblocks (MBs), and the field scan is used in field MBs. This paper presents a most probable scan mode (MPSM) decision for H.264 inter picture coding. Besides the two scans, a horizontal scan is illustrated. For a 4×4 block, one out of the three scan modes is selected as the most probable one, and is used for the transform coefficient scan. Furthermore, an improved MPSM decision is discussed. Simulation results report that the proposed method yields an average of 1.15% bit rate reduction over the H.264 baseline profile.