UTILIZING THRESHOLDS AND EARLY TERMINATION TO ACHIEVE FAST MOTION ESTIMATION IN A VIDEO ENCODER

Fast motion estimation in video encoding may be implemented using early termination. One or more section sizes in a current video picture may be determined for which a portion of motion estimation can be skipped during encoding of the current video picture. The portion of motion estimation may be performed on the current video picture on a section-by-section basis only for one or more section sizes not skipped. The picture may be encoded using the motion estimation performed in b) to produce an encoded picture. The resulting encoded picture may be stored or transmitted. The speedup achieved by skipping part of motion estimation may be regulated by selection of a quality control value.