Method and apparatus for determining block match quality

A method for determining the quality of a block match for a candidate motion vector in a video encoder system using motion vectors representing the difference in coordinates of a macroblock of data in a current frame of video data and coordinates of a related macroblock of data in a reference frame of video data comprising:

• defining a search pattern;
• searching a region based on the search pattern for a candidate motion vector for evaluation;
• calculating a difference metric;
• calculating a bias based on the difference metric between a predictor motion vector and a candidate motion vector;
• determining a modified difference metric by adding the difference metric to the bias;
• and
• defining a final motion vector based on the modified difference metric.

An apparatus for determining the quality of a block match for a candidate motion vector in a video encoder system using motion vectors representing the difference in coordinates of a macroblock of data in a current frame of video data and coordinates of a related macroblock of data in a reference frame of video data comprising:

• a current image macroblock input;
• a modified sum of absolute differences motion estimation circuit including
• a difference metric calculator,
• a bias calculator,
• a modified sum of absolute differences calculator, and
• a motion vector determination circuit;
• and
• a motion vector output.