A computer-implemented method, comprising: at a video encoder: determining, by means of a first preprocessing module, a first value by reducing a bit-length of a reference pixel value (p) and adding a first predetermined value to the result; determining, by means of a second preprocessing module, a second value by subtracting a residual pixel value (r) from a current pixel value (c) to generate a difference value (c-r), reducing a bit-length of the difference value (c-r) and adding the first predetermined value to the result; setting the second value to zero when the second value is equal to or less than a second predetermined value and setting the second value to a third predetermined value when the second value is equal to or greater than a fourth predetermined value; and performing motion estimation for inter-layer residual prediction using the first and second values, wherein the video encoder comprises a Scalable Video Coding encoder, and wherein the SVC encoder is configured to perform the inter-layer residual prediction, wherein the residual pixel value (r) comprises a residual pixel value (r) of a base layer, and wherein the reference pixel value (p) and the current pixel value (c) comprises pixel values of an enhancement layer. at a video encoder: determining, by means of a first preprocessing module, a first value by reducing a bit-length of a reference pixel value (p) and adding a first predetermined value to the result; determining, by means of a second preprocessing module, a second value by subtracting a residual pixel value (r) from a current pixel value (c) to generate a difference value (c-r), reducing a bit-length of the difference value (c-r) and adding the first predetermined value to the result; setting the second value to zero when the second value is equal to or less than a second predetermined value and setting the second value to a third predetermined value when the second value is equal to or greater than a fourth predetermined value; and performing motion estimation for inter-layer residual prediction using the first and second values, wherein the video encoder comprises a Scalable Video Coding encoder, and wherein the SVC encoder is configured to perform the inter-layer residual prediction, wherein the residual pixel value (r) comprises a residual pixel value (r) of a base layer, and wherein the reference pixel value (p) and the current pixel value (c) comprises pixel values of an enhancement layer. determining, by means of a first preprocessing module, a first value by reducing a bit-length of a reference pixel value (p) and adding a first predetermined value to the result; determining, by means of a second preprocessing module, a second value by subtracting a residual pixel value (r) from a current pixel value (c) to generate a difference value (c-r), reducing a bit-length of the difference value (c-r) and adding the first predetermined value to the result; setting the second value to zero when the second value is equal to or less than a second predetermined value and setting the second value to a third predetermined value when the second value is equal to or greater than a fourth predetermined value; and performing motion estimation for inter-layer residual prediction using the first and second values, wherein the video encoder comprises a Scalable Video Coding encoder, and wherein the SVC encoder is configured to perform the inter-layer residual prediction, wherein the residual pixel value (r) comprises a residual pixel value (r) of a base layer, and wherein the reference pixel value (p) and the current pixel value (c) comprises pixel values of an enhancement layer.