A video compression process speeds the optimal choice of quantizers for compressing
a data stream by setting up the optimization problem as a path-optimization problem
in configuration space and finding the lowest cost path through the configuration
space. The process begins with a starting node (or "state") and propagates least-cost
waves through the space until a path is completed to the end. The process may continue
using uncompleted paths while their costs are less than the end state, beginning
with the lowest cost incomplete path, until an improved path is found. The process
may further continue, for a time constrained process, until time runs out or all
useful possibilities are exhausted.
