Modeling the HEVC Encoding Energy Using the Encoder Processing Time

TL;DR

This paper investigates the relationship between encoding time and energy consumption in HEVC video encoding, proposing a simple model to estimate energy use based on encoding time with reasonable accuracy.

Contribution

It introduces a lightweight energy estimation model for HEVC encoding that uses encoding time, reducing the need for costly energy measurements.

Findings

Mean estimation error of 11.35% across presets

Model effectively estimates encoding energy from encoding time

Useful for developing energy-efficient video codecs

Abstract

The global significance of energy consumption of video communication renders research on the energy need of video coding an important task. To do so, usually, a dedicated setup is needed that measures the energy of the encoding and decoding system. However, such measurements are costly and complex. To this end, this paper presents the results of an exhaustive measurement series using the x265 encoder implementation of HEVC and analyzes the relation between encoding time and encoding energy. Finally, we introduce a simple encoding energy estimation model which employs the encoding time of a lightweight encoding process to estimate the encoding energy of complex encoding configurations. The proposed model reaches a mean estimation error of 11.35% when averaged over all presets. The results from this work are useful when the encoding energy estimate is required to develop new energy-efficient video compression algorithms.