Error diffused intra prediction for HEVC

Abstract

HEVC uses up to 35 prediction modes for intra prediction and it can well predict blocks with uni-directional structures or sharp edges, but the intra prediction still suffers from its discontinuous characteristics. To improve coding performance of intra prediction, the inpainting technique has been studied but it is impractical because of its high computational complexity. In this paper, we employ error diffusion technique for HEVC intra prediction to improve its coding efficiency with reasonable increase in computational complexity. The experimental results show that the error diffusion technique outperforms the inpainting technique subjectively and objectively, especially with much lower computational complexity. The results demonstrate that average 0.5% BDBR reduction can be achieved in the proposed algorithm, compared to HEVC intra prediction.