  This paper presents a method to accurately estimate the required decoding
energy for a given HEVC software decoding solution. We show that the decoder's
processing time as returned by common C++ and UNIX functions is a highly
suitable parameter to obtain valid estimations for the actual decoding energy.
We verify this hypothesis by performing an exhaustive measurement series using
different decoder setups and video bit streams. Our findings can be used by
developers and researchers in the search for new energy saving video
compression algorithms.
