Optimizing the transform complexity-quality tradeoff for hardware-accelerated HEVC video coding

When designing hardware-accelerated video encoding systems, it is fundamental to determine the maximum throughput needed by each subsystem so that the design can optimize the cost-performance tradeoff. One of the key modules in video coding is the 2D transform operation which is typically subject to heavy optimization efforts. This work investigates the tradeoff between the computational power spent in performing the transform operations for HEVC compression and the corresponding video quality as a function of a number of coding configuration parameters. Results provides a practical method to determine the throughput needed by the transform coding subsystem as well as the optimal configuration of the considered coding parameters for each desired complexity-quality tradeoff, showing that with small quality reduction large computational power savings are possible.