Abstract
This chapter provides background information about video coding theory and practice. Initially, the basic concepts of video coding and the basic model of a hybrid video compression system are presented in this chapter. A discussion on the rate-distortion optimisation (RDO) method is then followed by a description of the high-efficiency video coding (HEVC) standard. Finally, the chapter presents an introduction to the topic of computational complexity of HEVC, which is the main focus of this book.