HEVC intra mode selection based on Rate Distortion (RD) cost and Sum of Absolute Difference (SAD).

•The relationship between SAD and RD-cost is investigated for intra mode selection.•The ‘rate’ and ‘distortion’ requirement for a given SAD value varies with the QP.•The model is derived that is based on the rate and distortion requirement for SAD.•The overall proposed algorithm efficiently short list the intra mode(s) for RDO.•The RMD module of HEVC is outperformed in terms of BD-Rate and time saving.