Statistics-based deblocking filter in H.264/AVC for real time implementation

Deblocking filter of H.264 is identified as an important technology for improving the subjective quality of video. However, it is difficult to apply to low-cost embedded terminals due to its high computational complexity. By analyzing the statistical correlations of boundary strength and true-edge detection checks among adjacent blocks and pixels, this paper proposes an enhanced method of deblocking filter that efficiently reduces the deblocking complexity. In the ‘statistics-based deblocking filter (SBDF)’ proposed in this paper, only one boundary strength (BS) derivation is required for each macroblock edge instead of original four BS derivations, and four true-edge detections for each macroblock edge instead of original 16 true-edge detections. Experimental results show that the proposed SBDF significantly reduce the computational complexity with a slight loss in video quality.