Machine-Learning-Based Method for Finding Optimal Video-Codec Configurations Using Physical Input-Video Features

Roman Kazantsev, Sergey Zvezdakov, Dmitriy S. Vatolin

Abstract: Modern video codecs have many compression-tuning parameters from which numerous configurations (presets) can be constructed. The large number of presets complicates the search for one that delivers optimal encoding time, quality, and compressed-video size. This paper presents a machine-learning-based method that helps to solve this problem. We applied the method to the x264 video codec: it searches for optimal presets that demonstrate 9-20% bitrate savings relative to standard x264 presets with comparable compressed-video quality and encoding time. Our method is faster upto 10 times than existing solutions.