A Coding-Efficiency Analysis of HEVC Encoder Embedded in High-End Mobile Chipsets

Abstract High-end mobile devices require dedicated hardware for real-time video encoding and decoding processes. However, the inherent complexity of the video encoding process, combined with the physical limitations imposed by hardware design such as energy consumption, encoding time, memory usage, and heat dissipation, demands the implementation of various constraints and limitations in commercial hardware to simplify and make them feasible for general use. The High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) standard is the main targeted video encoder for processing high-resolution videos in high-end chipsets. This paper aims to analyze the HEVC encoder implemented into three commercial chipsets found in high-end smartphones (Apple iPhone 14 Pro, Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus, and Redmi Note 10S) from three major mobile chip manufacturers (Apple, Qualcomm, and MediaTek), considering the impacts of video encoder limitations on encoding efficiency (BD-Rate) and encoding time. The results in this paper may be used as a comparative foundation for hardware designers and future works in the field, as it exposes the encoding efficiency drawbacks, and the encoding time gains that commercial chipsets exhibit in their HEVC encoder.