Hardware oriented rate control algorithm and implementation for realtime video coding

In this paper, a novel rate control algorithm suitable for real-time video encoding is proposed. The proposed algorithm uses mean absolute error (MAE) results of motion estimation (ME) to achieve bit-rate control. Neither pre-analysis nor multi-pass encoding is required in our algorithm, which makes real-time hardware implementation possible. A new hardware oriented scene change detection method is also included in this rate control framework to achieve better video quality. Experiments show our rate control algorithm behaves well in all situations. The hardware architecture for this algorithm is also described. Implementation shows our proposed algorithm can be efficiently integrated into a low cost, high efficiency video encoder.