Patent ID: 12200196

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

The invention will now be described in detail hereinafter with reference to the accompanied drawings, which form a part of the present invention, and which show, by way of illustration, specific examples of embodiments. Please note that the invention may, however, be embodied in a variety of different forms and, therefore, the covered or claimed subject matter is intended to be construed as not being limited to any of the embodiments to be set forth below. Please also note that the invention may be embodied as methods, devices, components, or systems. Accordingly, embodiments of the invention may, for example, take the form of hardware, software, firmware or any combination thereof.

Throughout the specification and claims, terms may have nuanced meanings suggested or implied in context beyond an explicitly stated meaning. The phrase “in one embodiment” or “in some embodiments” as used herein does not necessarily refer to the same embodiment and the phrase “in another embodiment” or “in other embodiments” as used herein does not necessarily refer to a different embodiment. Likewise, the phrase “in one implementation” or “in some implementations” as used herein does not necessarily refer to the same implementation and the phrase “in another implementation” or “in other implementations” as used herein does not necessarily refer to a different implementation. It is intended, for example, that claimed subject matter includes combinations of exemplary embodiments/implementations in whole or in part.

In general, terminology may be understood at least in part from usage in context. For example, terms, such as “and”, “or”, or “and/or,” as used herein may include a variety of meanings that may depend at least in part upon the context in which such terms are used. Typically, “or” if used to associate a list, such as A, B or C, is intended to mean A, B, and C, here used in the inclusive sense, as well as A, B or C, here used in the exclusive sense. In addition, the term “one or more” or “at least one” as used herein, depending at least in part upon context, may be used to describe any feature, structure, or characteristic in a singular sense or may be used to describe combinations of features, structures or characteristics in a plural sense. Similarly, terms, such as “a”, “an”, or “the”, again, may be understood to convey a singular usage or to convey a plural usage, depending at least in part upon context. In addition, the term “based on” or “determined by” may be understood as not necessarily intended to convey an exclusive set of factors and may, instead, allow for existence of additional factors not necessarily expressly described, again, depending at least in part on context.

FIG.3illustrates a simplified block diagram of a communication system (300) according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. The communication system (300) includes a plurality of terminal devices that can communicate with each other, via, for example, a network (350). For example, the communication system (300) includes a first pair of terminal devices (310) and (320) interconnected via the network (350). In the example ofFIG.3, the first pair of terminal devices (310) and (320) may perform unidirectional transmission of data. For example, the terminal device (310) may code video data (e.g., of a stream of video pictures that are captured by the terminal device (310)) for transmission to the other terminal device (320) via the network (350). The encoded video data can be transmitted in the form of one or more coded video bitstreams. The terminal device (320) may receive the coded video data from the network (350), decode the coded video data to recover the video pictures and display the video pictures according to the recovered video data. Unidirectional data transmission may be implemented in media serving applications and the like.

In another example, the communication system (300) includes a second pair of terminal devices (330) and (340) that perform bidirectional transmission of coded video data that may be implemented, for example, during a videoconferencing application. For bidirectional transmission of data, in an example, each terminal device of the terminal devices (330) and (340) may code video data (e.g., of a stream of video pictures that are captured by the terminal device) for transmission to the other terminal device of the terminal devices (330) and (340) via the network (350). Each terminal device of the terminal devices (330) and (340) also may receive the coded video data transmitted by the other terminal device of the terminal devices (330) and (340), and may decode the coded video data to recover the video pictures and may display the video pictures at an accessible display device according to the recovered video data.

In the example ofFIG.3, the terminal devices (310), (320), (330) and (340) may be implemented as servers, personal computers and smart phones but the applicability of the underlying principles of the present disclosure may not be so limited. Embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented in desktop computers, laptop computers, tablet computers, media players, wearable computers, dedicated video conferencing equipment, and/or the like. The network (350) represents any number or types of networks that convey coded video data among the terminal devices (310), (320), (330) and (340), including for example wireline (wired) and/or wireless communication networks. The communication network (350)9may exchange data in circuit-switched, packet-switched, and/or other types of channels. Representative networks include telecommunications networks, local area networks, wide area networks and/or the Internet. For the purposes of the present discussion, the architecture and topology of the network (350) may be immaterial to the operation of the present disclosure unless explicitly explained herein.

FIG.4illustrates, as an example for an application for the disclosed subject matter, a placement of a video encoder and a video decoder in a video streaming environment. The disclosed subject matter may be equally applicable to other video applications, including, for example, video conferencing, digital TV broadcasting, gaming, virtual reality, storage of compressed video on digital media including CD, DVD, memory stick and the like, and so on.

A video streaming system may include a video capture subsystem (413) that can include a video source (401), e.g., a digital camera, for creating a stream of video pictures or images (402) that are uncompressed. In an example, the stream of video pictures (402) includes samples that are recorded by a digital camera of the video source401. The stream of video pictures (402), depicted as a bold line to emphasize a high data volume when compared to encoded video data (404) (or coded video bitstreams), can be processed by an electronic device (420) that includes a video encoder (403) coupled to the video source (401). The video encoder (403) can include hardware, software, or a combination thereof to enable or implement aspects of the disclosed subject matter as described in more detail below. The encoded video data (404) (or encoded video bitstream (404)), depicted as a thin line to emphasize a lower data volume when compared to the stream of uncompressed video pictures (402), can be stored on a streaming server (405) for future use or directly to downstream video devices (not shown). One or more streaming client subsystems, such as client subsystems (406) and (408) inFIG.4can access the streaming server (405) to retrieve copies (407) and (409) of the encoded video data (404). A client subsystem (406) can include a video decoder (410), for example, in an electronic device (430). The video decoder (410) decodes the incoming copy (407) of the encoded video data and creates an outgoing stream of video pictures (411) that are uncompressed and that can be rendered on a display (412) (e.g., a display screen) or other rendering devices (not depicted). The video decoder410may be configured to perform some or all of the various functions described in this disclosure. In some streaming systems, the encoded video data (404), (407), and (409) (e.g., video bitstreams) can be encoded according to certain video coding/compression standards. Examples of those standards include ITU-T Recommendation H.265. In an example, a video coding standard under development is informally known as Versatile Video Coding (VVC). The disclosed subject matter may be used in the context of VVC, and other video coding standards.

It is noted that the electronic devices (420) and (430) can include other components (not shown). For example, the electronic device (420) can include a video decoder (not shown) and the electronic device (430) can include a video encoder (not shown) as well.

FIG.5shows a block diagram of a video decoder (510) according to any embodiment of the present disclosure below. The video decoder (510) can be included in an electronic device (530). The electronic device (530) can include a receiver (531) (e.g., receiving circuitry). The video decoder (510) can be used in place of the video decoder (410) in the example ofFIG.4.

The receiver (531) may receive one or more coded video sequences to be decoded by the video decoder (510). In the same or another embodiment, one coded video sequence may be decoded at a time, where the decoding of each coded video sequence is independent from other coded video sequences. Each video sequence may be associated with multiple video frames or images. The coded video sequence may be received from a channel (501), which may be a hardware/software link to a storage device which stores the encoded video data or a streaming source which transmits the encoded video data. The receiver (531) may receive the encoded video data with other data such as coded audio data and/or ancillary data streams, that may be forwarded to their respective processing circuitry (not depicted). The receiver (531) may separate the coded video sequence from the other data. To combat network jitter, a buffer memory (515) may be disposed in between the receiver (531) and an entropy decoder/parser (520) (“parser (520)” henceforth). In certain applications, the buffer memory (515) may be implemented as part of the video decoder (510). In other applications, it can be outside of and separate from the video decoder (510) (not depicted). In still other applications, there can be a buffer memory (not depicted) outside of the video decoder (510) for the purpose of, for example, combating network jitter, and there may be another additional buffer memory (515) inside the video decoder (510), for example to handle playback timing. When the receiver (531) is receiving data from a store/forward device of sufficient bandwidth and controllability, or from an isosynchronous network, the buffer memory (515) may not be needed, or can be small. For use on best-effort packet networks such as the Internet, the buffer memory (515) of sufficient size may be required, and its size can be comparatively large. Such buffer memory may be implemented with an adaptive size, and may at least partially be implemented in an operating system or similar elements (not depicted) outside of the video decoder (510).

The video decoder (510) may include the parser (520) to reconstruct symbols (521) from the coded video sequence. Categories of those symbols include information used to manage operation of the video decoder (510), and potentially information to control a rendering device such as display (512) (e.g., a display screen) that may or may not an integral part of the electronic device (530) but can be coupled to the electronic device (530), as is shown inFIG.5. The control information for the rendering device(s) may be in the form of Supplemental Enhancement Information (SEI messages) or Video Usability Information (VUI) parameter set fragments (not depicted). The parser (520) may parse/entropy-decode the coded video sequence that is received by the parser (520). The entropy coding of the coded video sequence can be in accordance with a video coding technology or standard, and can follow various principles, including variable length coding, Huffman coding, arithmetic coding with or without context sensitivity, and so forth. The parser (520) may extract from the coded video sequence, a set of subgroup parameters for at least one of the subgroups of pixels in the video decoder, based upon at least one parameter corresponding to the subgroups. The subgroups can include Groups of Pictures (GOPs), pictures, tiles, slices, macroblocks, Coding Units (CUs), blocks, Transform Units (TUs), Prediction Units (PUs) and so forth. The parser (520) may also extract from the coded video sequence information such as transform coefficients (e.g., Fourier transform coefficients), quantizer parameter values, motion vectors, and so forth.

The parser (520) may perform an entropy decoding/parsing operation on the video sequence received from the buffer memory (515), so as to create symbols (521).

Reconstruction of the symbols (521) can involve multiple different processing or functional units depending on the type of the coded video picture or parts thereof (such as: inter and intra picture, inter and intra block), and other factors. The units that are involved and how they are involved may be controlled by the subgroup control information that was parsed from the coded video sequence by the parser (520). The flow of such subgroup control information between the parser (520) and the multiple processing or functional units below is not depicted for simplicity.

Beyond the functional blocks already mentioned, the video decoder (510) can be conceptually subdivided into a number of functional units as described below. In a practical implementation operating under commercial constraints, many of these functional units interact closely with each other and can, at least partly, be integrated with one another. However, for the purpose of describing the various functions of the disclosed subject matter with clarity, the conceptual subdivision into the functional units is adopted in the disclosure below.

A first unit may include the scaler/inverse transform unit (551). The scaler/inverse transform unit (551) may receive a quantized transform coefficient as well as control information, including information indicating which type of inverse transform to use, block size, quantization factor/parameters, quantization scaling matrices, and the lie as symbol(s) (521) from the parser (520). The scaler/inverse transform unit (551) can output blocks comprising sample values that can be input into aggregator (555).

In some cases, the output samples of the scaler/inverse transform (551) can pertain to an intra coded block, i.e., a block that does not use predictive information from previously reconstructed pictures, but can use predictive information from previously reconstructed parts of the current picture. Such predictive information can be provided by an intra picture prediction unit (552). In some cases, the intra picture prediction unit (552) may generate a block of the same size and shape of the block under reconstruction using surrounding block information that is already reconstructed and stored in the current picture buffer (558). The current picture buffer (558) buffers, for example, partly reconstructed current picture and/or fully reconstructed current picture. The aggregator (555), in some implementations, may add, on a per sample basis, the prediction information the intra prediction unit (552) has generated to the output sample information as provided by the scaler/inverse transform unit (551).

In other cases, the output samples of the scaler/inverse transform unit (551) can pertain to an inter coded, and potentially motion compensated block. In such a case, a motion compensation prediction unit (553) can access reference picture memory (557) to fetch samples used for inter-picture prediction. After motion compensating the fetched samples in accordance with the symbols (521) pertaining to the block, these samples can be added by the aggregator (555) to the output of the scaler/inverse transform unit (551) (output of unit551may be referred to as the residual samples or residual signal) so as to generate output sample information. The addresses within the reference picture memory (557) from where the motion compensation prediction unit (553) fetches prediction samples can be controlled by motion vectors, available to the motion compensation prediction unit (553) in the form of symbols (521) that can have, for example X, Y components (shift), and reference picture components (time). Motion compensation may also include interpolation of sample values as fetched from the reference picture memory (557) when sub-sample exact motion vectors are in use, and may also be associated with motion vector prediction mechanisms, and so forth.

The output samples of the aggregator (555) can be subject to various loop filtering techniques in the loop filter unit (556). Video compression technologies can include in-loop filter technologies that are controlled by parameters included in the coded video sequence (also referred to as coded video bitstream) and made available to the loop filter unit (556) as symbols (521) from the parser (520), but can also be responsive to meta-information obtained during the decoding of previous (in decoding order) parts of the coded picture or coded video sequence, as well as responsive to previously reconstructed and loop-filtered sample values. Several type of loop filters may be included as part of the loop filter unit556in various orders, as will be described in further detail below.

The output of the loop filter unit (556) can be a sample stream that can be output to the rendering device (512) as well as stored in the reference picture memory (557) for use in future inter-picture prediction.

Certain coded pictures, once fully reconstructed, can be used as reference pictures for future inter-picture prediction. For example, once a coded picture corresponding to a current picture is fully reconstructed and the coded picture has been identified as a reference picture (by, for example, the parser (520)), the current picture buffer (558) can become a part of the reference picture memory (557), and a fresh current picture buffer can be reallocated before commencing the reconstruction of the following coded picture.

The video decoder (510) may perform decoding operations according to a predetermined video compression technology adopted in a standard, such as ITU-T Rec. H.265. The coded video sequence may conform to a syntax specified by the video compression technology or standard being used, in the sense that the coded video sequence adheres to both the syntax of the video compression technology or standard and the profiles as documented in the video compression technology or standard. Specifically, a profile can select certain tools from all the tools available in the video compression technology or standard as the only tools available for use under that profile. To be standard-compliant, the complexity of the coded video sequence may be within bounds as defined by the level of the video compression technology or standard. In some cases, levels restrict the maximum picture size, maximum frame rate, maximum reconstruction sample rate (measured in, for example mega samples per second), maximum reference picture size, and so on. Limits set by levels can, in some cases, be further restricted through Hypothetical Reference Decoder (HRD) specifications and metadata for HRD buffer management signaled in the coded video sequence.

In some example embodiments, the receiver (531) may receive additional (redundant) data with the encoded video. The additional data may be included as part of the coded video sequence(s). The additional data may be used by the video decoder (510) to properly decode the data and/or to more accurately reconstruct the original video data. Additional data can be in the form of, for example, temporal, spatial, or signal noise ratio (SNR) enhancement layers, redundant slices, redundant pictures, forward error correction codes, and so on.

FIG.6shows a block diagram of a video encoder (603) according to an example embodiment of the present disclosure. The video encoder (603) may be included in an electronic device (620). The electronic device (620) may further include a transmitter (640) (e.g., transmitting circuitry). The video encoder (603) can be used in place of the video encoder (403) in the example ofFIG.4.

The video encoder (603) may receive video samples from a video source (601) (that is not part of the electronic device (620) in the example ofFIG.6) that may capture video image(s) to be coded by the video encoder (603). In another example, the video source (601) may be implemented as a portion of the electronic device (620).

The video source (601) may provide the source video sequence to be coded by the video encoder (603) in the form of a digital video sample stream that can be of any suitable bit depth (for example: 8 bit, 10 bit, 12 bit, . . . ), any color space (for example, BT.601 YCrCb, RGB, XYZ . . . ), and any suitable sampling structure (for example YCrCb 4:2:0, YCrCb 4:4:4). In a media serving system, the video source (601) may be a storage device capable of storing previously prepared video. In a videoconferencing system, the video source (601) may be a camera that captures local image information as a video sequence. Video data may be provided as a plurality of individual pictures or images that impart motion when viewed in sequence. The pictures themselves may be organized as a spatial array of pixels, wherein each pixel can comprise one or more samples depending on the sampling structure, color space, and the like being in use. A person having ordinary skill in the art can readily understand the relationship between pixels and samples. The description below focuses on samples.

According to some example embodiments, the video encoder (603) may code and compress the pictures of the source video sequence into a coded video sequence (643) in real time or under any other time constraints as required by the application. Enforcing appropriate coding speed constitutes one function of a controller (650). In some embodiments, the controller (650) may be functionally coupled to and control other functional units as described below. The coupling is not depicted for simplicity. Parameters set by the controller (650) can include rate control related parameters (picture skip, quantizer, lambda value of rate-distortion optimization techniques, . . . ), picture size, group of pictures (GOP) layout, maximum motion vector search range, and the like. The controller (650) can be configured to have other suitable functions that pertain to the video encoder (603) optimized for a certain system design.

In some example embodiments, the video encoder (603) may be configured to operate in a coding loop. As an oversimplified description, in an example, the coding loop can include a source coder (630) (e.g., responsible for creating symbols, such as a symbol stream, based on an input picture to be coded, and a reference picture(s)), and a (local) decoder (633) embedded in the video encoder (603). The decoder (633) reconstructs the symbols to create the sample data in a similar manner as a (remote) decoder would create even though the embedded decoder633process coded video steam by the source coder630without entropy coding (as any compression between symbols and coded video bitstream in entropy coding may be lossless in the video compression technologies considered in the disclosed subject matter). The reconstructed sample stream (sample data) is input to the reference picture memory (634). As the decoding of a symbol stream leads to bit-exact results independent of decoder location (local or remote), the content in the reference picture memory (634) is also bit exact between the local encoder and remote encoder. In other words, the prediction part of an encoder “sees” as reference picture samples exactly the same sample values as a decoder would “see” when using prediction during decoding. This fundamental principle of reference picture synchronicity (and resulting drift, if synchronicity cannot be maintained, for example because of channel errors) is used to improve coding quality.

The operation of the “local” decoder (633) can be the same as of a “remote” decoder, such as the video decoder (510), which has already been described in detail above in conjunction withFIG.5. Briefly referring also toFIG.5, however, as symbols are available and encoding/decoding of symbols to a coded video sequence by an entropy coder (645) and the parser (520) can be lossless, the entropy decoding parts of the video decoder (510), including the buffer memory (515), and parser (520) may not be fully implemented in the local decoder (633) in the encoder.

An observation that can be made at this point is that any decoder technology except the parsing/entropy decoding that may only be present in a decoder also may necessarily need to be present, in substantially identical functional form, in a corresponding encoder. For this reason, the disclosed subject matter may at times focus on decoder operation, which allies to the decoding portion of the encoder. The description of encoder technologies can thus be abbreviated as they are the inverse of the comprehensively described decoder technologies. Only in certain areas or aspects a more detail description of the encoder is provided below.

During operation in some example implementations, the source coder (630) may perform motion compensated predictive coding, which codes an input picture predictively with reference to one or more previously coded picture from the video sequence that were designated as “reference pictures.” In this manner, the coding engine (632) codes differences (or residue) in the color channels between pixel blocks of an input picture and pixel blocks of reference picture(s) that may be selected as prediction reference(s) to the input picture. The term “residue” and its adjective form “residual” may be used interchangeably.

The local video decoder (633) may decode coded video data of pictures that may be designated as reference pictures, based on symbols created by the source coder (630). Operations of the coding engine (632) may advantageously be lossy processes. When the coded video data may be decoded at a video decoder (not shown inFIG.6), the reconstructed video sequence typically may be a replica of the source video sequence with some errors. The local video decoder (633) replicates decoding processes that may be performed by the video decoder on reference pictures and may cause reconstructed reference pictures to be stored in the reference picture cache (634). In this manner, the video encoder (603) may store copies of reconstructed reference pictures locally that have common content as the reconstructed reference pictures that will be obtained by a far-end (remote) video decoder (absent transmission errors).

The predictor (635) may perform prediction searches for the coding engine (632). That is, for a new picture to be coded, the predictor (635) may search the reference picture memory (634) for sample data (as candidate reference pixel blocks) or certain metadata such as reference picture motion vectors, block shapes, and so on, that may serve as an appropriate prediction reference for the new pictures. The predictor (635) may operate on a sample block-by-pixel block basis to find appropriate prediction references. In some cases, as determined by search results obtained by the predictor (635), an input picture may have prediction references drawn from multiple reference pictures stored in the reference picture memory (634).

The controller (650) may manage coding operations of the source coder (630), including, for example, setting of parameters and subgroup parameters used for encoding the video data.

Output of all aforementioned functional units may be subjected to entropy coding in the entropy coder (645). The entropy coder (645) translates the symbols as generated by the various functional units into a coded video sequence, by lossless compression of the symbols according to technologies such as Huffman coding, variable length coding, arithmetic coding, and so forth.

The transmitter (640) may buffer the coded video sequence(s) as created by the entropy coder (645) to prepare for transmission via a communication channel (660), which may be a hardware/software link to a storage device which would store the encoded video data. The transmitter (640) may merge coded video data from the video coder (603) with other data to be transmitted, for example, coded audio data and/or ancillary data streams (sources not shown).

The controller (650) may manage operation of the video encoder (603). During coding, the controller (650) may assign to each coded picture a certain coded picture type, which may affect the coding techniques that may be applied to the respective picture. For example, pictures often may be assigned as one of the following picture types:

An Intra Picture (I picture) may be one that may be coded and decoded without using any other picture in the sequence as a source of prediction. Some video codecs allow for different types of intra pictures, including, for example Independent Decoder Refresh (“IDR”) Pictures. A person having ordinary skill in the art is aware of those variants of I pictures and their respective applications and features.

A predictive picture (P picture) may be one that may be coded and decoded using intra prediction or inter prediction using at most one motion vector and reference index to predict the sample values of each block.

A bi-directionally predictive picture (B Picture) may be one that may be coded and decoded using intra prediction or inter prediction using at most two motion vectors and reference indices to predict the sample values of each block. Similarly, multiple-predictive pictures can use more than two reference pictures and associated metadata for the reconstruction of a single block.

Source pictures commonly may be subdivided spatially into a plurality of sample coding blocks (for example, blocks of 4×4, 8×8, 4×8, or 16×16 samples each) and coded on a block-by-block basis. Blocks may be coded predictively with reference to other (already coded) blocks as determined by the coding assignment applied to the blocks' respective pictures. For example, blocks of I pictures may be coded non-predictively or they may be coded predictively with reference to already coded blocks of the same picture (spatial prediction or intra prediction). Pixel blocks of P pictures may be coded predictively, via spatial prediction or via temporal prediction with reference to one previously coded reference picture. Blocks of B pictures may be coded predictively, via spatial prediction or via temporal prediction with reference to one or two previously coded reference pictures. The source pictures or the intermediate processed pictures may be subdivided into other types of blocks for other purposes. The division of coding blocks and the other types of blocks may or may not follow the same manner, as described in further detail below.

The video encoder (603) may perform coding operations according to a predetermined video coding technology or standard, such as ITU-T Rec. H.265. In its operation, the video encoder (603) may perform various compression operations, including predictive coding operations that exploit temporal and spatial redundancies in the input video sequence. The coded video data may accordingly conform to a syntax specified by the video coding technology or standard being used.

In some example embodiments, the transmitter (640) may transmit additional data with the encoded video. The source coder (630) may include such data as part of the coded video sequence. The additional data may comprise temporal/spatial/SNR enhancement layers, other forms of redundant data such as redundant pictures and slices, SEI messages, VUI parameter set fragments, and so on.

A video may be captured as a plurality of source pictures (video pictures) in a temporal sequence. Intra-picture prediction (often abbreviated to intra prediction) utilizes spatial correlation in a given picture, and inter-picture prediction utilizes temporal or other correlation between the pictures. For example, a specific picture under encoding/decoding, which is referred to as a current picture, may be partitioned into blocks. A block in the current picture, when similar to a reference block in a previously coded and still buffered reference picture in the video, may be coded by a vector that is referred to as a motion vector. The motion vector points to the reference block in the reference picture, and can have a third dimension identifying the reference picture, in case multiple reference pictures are in use.

In some example embodiments, a bi-prediction technique can be used for inter-picture prediction. According to such bi-prediction technique, two reference pictures, such as a first reference picture and a second reference picture that both proceed the current picture in the video in decoding order (but may be in the past or future, respectively, in display order) are used. A block in the current picture can be coded by a first motion vector that points to a first reference block in the first reference picture, and a second motion vector that points to a second reference block in the second reference picture. The block can be jointly predicted by a combination of the first reference block and the second reference block.

Further, a merge mode technique may be used in the inter-picture prediction to improve coding efficiency.

According to some example embodiments of the disclosure, predictions, such as inter-picture predictions and intra-picture predictions are performed in the unit of blocks. For example, a picture in a sequence of video pictures is partitioned into coding tree units (CTU) for compression, the CTUs in a picture may have the same size, such as 64×64 pixels, 32×32 pixels, or 16×16 pixels. In general, a CTU may include three parallel coding tree blocks (CTBs): one luma CTB and two chroma CTBs. Each CTU can be recursively quadtree split into one or multiple coding units (CUs). For example, a CTU of 64×64 pixels can be split into one CU of 64×64 pixels, or 4 CUs of 32×32 pixels. Each of the one or more of the 32×32 block may be further split into 4 CUs of 16×16 pixels. In some example embodiments, each CU may be analyzed during encoding to determine a prediction type for the CU among various prediction types such as an inter prediction type or an intra prediction type. The CU may be split into one or more prediction units (PUs) depending on the temporal and/or spatial predictability. Generally, each PU includes a luma prediction block (PB), and two chroma PBs. In an embodiment, a prediction operation in coding (encoding/decoding) is performed in the unit of a prediction block. The split of a CU into PU (or PBs of different color channels) may be performed in various spatial pattern. A luma or chroma PB, for example, may include a matrix of values (e.g., luma values) for samples, such as 8×8 pixels, 16×16 pixels, 8×16 pixels, 16×8 samples, and the like.

FIG.7shows a diagram of a video encoder (703) according to another example embodiment of the disclosure. The video encoder (703) is configured to receive a processing block (e.g., a prediction block) of sample values within a current video picture in a sequence of video pictures, and encode the processing block into a coded picture that is part of a coded video sequence. The example video encoder (703) may be used in place of the video encoder (403) in theFIG.4example.

For example, the video encoder (703) receives a matrix of sample values for a processing block, such as a prediction block of 8×8 samples, and the like. The video encoder (703) then determines whether the processing block is best coded using intra mode, inter mode, or bi-prediction mode using, for example, rate-distortion optimization (RDO). When the processing block is determined to be coded in intra mode, the video encoder (703) may use an intra prediction technique to encode the processing block into the coded picture; and when the processing block is determined to be coded in inter mode or bi-prediction mode, the video encoder (703) may use an inter prediction or bi-prediction technique, respectively, to encode the processing block into the coded picture. In some example embodiments, a merge mode may be used as a submode of the inter picture prediction where the motion vector is derived from one or more motion vector predictors without the benefit of a coded motion vector component outside the predictors. In some other example embodiments, a motion vector component applicable to the subject block may be present. Accordingly, the video encoder (703) may include components not explicitly shown inFIG.7, such as a mode decision module, to determine the perdition mode of the processing blocks.

In the example ofFIG.7, the video encoder (703) includes an inter encoder (730), an intra encoder (722), a residue calculator (723), a switch (726), a residue encoder (724), a general controller (721), and an entropy encoder (725) coupled together as shown in the example arrangement inFIG.7.

The inter encoder (730) is configured to receive the samples of the current block (e.g., a processing block), compare the block to one or more reference blocks in reference pictures (e.g., blocks in previous pictures and later pictures in display order), generate inter prediction information (e.g., description of redundant information according to inter encoding technique, motion vectors, merge mode information), and calculate inter prediction results (e.g., predicted block) based on the inter prediction information using any suitable technique. In some examples, the reference pictures are decoded reference pictures that are decoded based on the encoded video information using the decoding unit633embedded in the example encoder620ofFIG.6(shown as residual decoder728ofFIG.7, as described in further detail below).

The intra encoder (722) is configured to receive the samples of the current block (e.g., a processing block), compare the block to blocks already coded in the same picture, and generate quantized coefficients after transform, and in some cases also to generate intra prediction information (e.g., an intra prediction direction information according to one or more intra encoding techniques). The intra encoder (722) may calculates intra prediction results (e.g., predicted block) based on the intra prediction information and reference blocks in the same picture.

The general controller (721) may be configured to determine general control data and control other components of the video encoder (703) based on the general control data. In an example, the general controller (721) determines the prediction mode of the block, and provides a control signal to the switch (726) based on the prediction mode. For example, when the prediction mode is the intra mode, the general controller (721) controls the switch (726) to select the intra mode result for use by the residue calculator (723), and controls the entropy encoder (725) to select the intra prediction information and include the intra prediction information in the bitstream; and when the predication mode for the block is the inter mode, the general controller (721) controls the switch (726) to select the inter prediction result for use by the residue calculator (723), and controls the entropy encoder (725) to select the inter prediction information and include the inter prediction information in the bitstream.

The residue calculator (723) may be configured to calculate a difference (residue data) between the received block and prediction results for the block selected from the intra encoder (722) or the inter encoder (730). The residue encoder (724) may be configured to encode the residue data to generate transform coefficients. For example, the residue encoder (724) may be configured to convert the residue data from a spatial domain to a frequency domain to generate the transform coefficients. The transform coefficients are then subject to quantization processing to obtain quantized transform coefficients. In various example embodiments, the video encoder (703) also includes a residual decoder (728). The residual decoder (728) is configured to perform inverse-transform, and generate the decoded residue data. The decoded residue data can be suitably used by the intra encoder (722) and the inter encoder (730). For example, the inter encoder (730) can generate decoded blocks based on the decoded residue data and inter prediction information, and the intra encoder (722) can generate decoded blocks based on the decoded residue data and the intra prediction information. The decoded blocks are suitably processed to generate decoded pictures and the decoded pictures can be buffered in a memory circuit (not shown) and used as reference pictures.

The entropy encoder (725) may be configured to format the bitstream to include the encoded block and perform entropy coding. The entropy encoder (725) is configured to include in the bitstream various information. For example, the entropy encoder (725) may be configured to include the general control data, the selected prediction information (e.g., intra prediction information or inter prediction information), the residue information, and other suitable information in the bitstream. When coding a block in the merge submode of either inter mode or bi-prediction mode, there may be no residue information.

FIG.8shows a diagram of an example video decoder (810) according to another embodiment of the disclosure. The video decoder (810) is configured to receive coded pictures that are part of a coded video sequence, and decode the coded pictures to generate reconstructed pictures. In an example, the video decoder (810) may be used in place of the video decoder (410) in the example ofFIG.4.

In the example ofFIG.8, the video decoder (810) includes an entropy decoder (871), an inter decoder (880), a residual decoder (873), a reconstruction module (874), and an intra decoder (872) coupled together as shown in the example arrangement ofFIG.8.

The entropy decoder (871) can be configured to reconstruct, from the coded picture, certain symbols that represent the syntax elements of which the coded picture is made up. Such symbols can include, for example, the mode in which a block is coded (e.g., intra mode, inter mode, bi-predicted mode, merge submode or another submode), prediction information (e.g., intra prediction information or inter prediction information) that can identify certain sample or metadata used for prediction by the intra decoder (872) or the inter decoder (880), residual information in the form of, for example, quantized transform coefficients, and the like. In an example, when the prediction mode is the inter or bi-predicted mode, the inter prediction information is provided to the inter decoder (880); and when the prediction type is the intra prediction type, the intra prediction information is provided to the intra decoder (872). The residual information can be subject to inverse quantization and is provided to the residual decoder (873).

The inter decoder (880) may be configured to receive the inter prediction information, and generate inter prediction results based on the inter prediction information.

The intra decoder (872) may be configured to receive the intra prediction information, and generate prediction results based on the intra prediction information.

The residual decoder (873) may be configured to perform inverse quantization to extract de-quantized transform coefficients, and process the de-quantized transform coefficients to convert the residual from the frequency domain to the spatial domain. The residual decoder (873) may also utilize certain control information (to include the Quantizer Parameter (QP)) which may be provided by the entropy decoder (871) (data path not depicted as this may be low data volume control information only).

The reconstruction module (874) may be configured to combine, in the spatial domain, the residual as output by the residual decoder (873) and the prediction results (as output by the inter or intra prediction modules as the case may be) to form a reconstructed block forming part of the reconstructed picture as part of the reconstructed video. It is noted that other suitable operations, such as a deblocking operation and the like, may also be performed to improve the visual quality.

It is noted that the video encoders (403), (603), and (703), and the video decoders (410), (510), and (810) can be implemented using any suitable technique. In some example embodiments, the video encoders (403), (603), and (703), and the video decoders (410), (510), and (810) can be implemented using one or more integrated circuits. In another embodiment, the video encoders (403), (603), and (603), and the video decoders (410), (510), and (810) can be implemented using one or more processors that execute software instructions.

Turning to block partitioning for coding and decoding, general partitioning may start from a base block and may follow a predefined ruleset, particular patterns, partition trees, or any partition structure or scheme. The partitioning may be hierarchical and recursive. After dividing or partitioning a base block following any of the example partitioning procedures or other procedures described below, or the combination thereof, a final set of partitions or coding blocks may be obtained. Each of these partitions may be at one of various partitioning levels in the partitioning hierarchy, and may be of various shapes. Each of the partitions may be referred to as a coding block (CB). For the various example partitioning implementations described further below, each resulting CB may be of any of the allowed sizes and partitioning levels. Such partitions are referred to as coding blocks because they may form units for which some basic coding/decoding decisions may be made and coding/decoding parameters may be optimized, determined, and signaled in an encoded video bitstream. The highest or deepest level in the final partitions represents the depth of the coding block partitioning structure of tree. A coding block may be a luma coding block or a chroma coding block. The CB tree structure of each color may be referred to as coding block tree (CBT).

The coding blocks of all color channels may collectively be referred to as a coding unit (CU). The hierarchical structure of for all color channels may be collectively referred to as coding tree unit (CTU). The partitioning patterns or structures for the various color channels in in a CTU may or may not be the same.

In some implementations, partition tree schemes or structures used for the luma and chroma channels may not need to be the same. In other words, luma and chroma channels may have separate coding tree structures or patterns. Further, whether the luma and chroma channels use the same or different coding partition tree structures and the actual coding partition tree structures to be used may depend on whether the slice being coded is a P, B, or I slice. For example, For an I slice, the chroma channels and luma channel may have separate coding partition tree structures or coding partition tree structure modes, whereas for a P or B slice, the luma and chroma channels may share a same coding partition tree scheme. When separate coding partition tree structures or modes are applied, a luma channel may be partitioned into CBs by one coding partition tree structure, and a chroma channel may be partitioned into chroma CBs by another coding partition tree structure.

In some example implementations, a predetermined partitioning pattern may be applied to a base block. As shown inFIG.9, an example 4-way partition tree may start from a first predefined level (e.g., 64×64 block level or other sizes, as a base block size) and a base block may be partitioned hierarchically down to a predefined lowest level (e.g., 4×4 level). For example, a base block may be subject to four predefined partitioning options or patterns indicated by902,904,906, and908, with the partitions designated as R being allowed for recursive partitioning in that the same partition options as indicated inFIG.9may be repeated at a lower scale until the lowest level (e.g., 4×4 level). In some implementations, additional restrictions may be applied to the partitioning scheme ofFIG.9. In the implementation ofFIG.9, rectangular partitions (e.g., 1:2/2:1 rectangular partitions) may be allowed but they may not be allowed to be recursive, whereas square partitions are allowed to be recursive. The partitioning followingFIG.9with recursion, if needed, generates a final set of coding blocks. A coding tree depth may be further defined to indicate the splitting depth from the root node or root block. For example, the coding tree depth for the root node or root block, e.g. a 64×64 block, may be set to 0, and after the root block is further split once followingFIG.9, the coding tree depth is increased by 1. The maximum or deepest level from 64×64 base block to a minimum partition of 4×4 would be 4 (starting from level 0) for the scheme above. Such partitioning scheme may apply to one or more of the color channels. Each color channel may be partitioned independently following the scheme ofFIG.9(e.g., partitioning pattern or option among the predefined patterns may be independently determined for each of the color channels at each hierarchical level). Alternatively, two or more of the color channels may share the same hierarchical pattern tree ofFIG.9(e.g., the same partitioning pattern or option among the predefined patterns may be chosen for the two or more color channels at each hierarchical level).

FIG.10shows another example predefined partitioning pattern allowing recursive partitioning to form a partitioning tree. As shown inFIG.10, an example 10-way partitioning structure or pattern may be predefined. The root block may start at a predefined level (e.g. from a base block at 128×128 level, or 64×64 level). The example partitioning structure ofFIG.10includes various 2:1/1:2 and 4:1/1:4 rectangular partitions. The partition types with 3 sub-partitions indicated1002,1004,1006, and1008in the second row ofFIG.10may be referred to “T-type” partitions. The “T-Type” partitions1002,1004,1006, and1008may be referred to as Left T-Type, Top T-Type, Right T-Type and Bottom T-Type. In some example implementations, none of the rectangular partitions ofFIG.10is allowed to be further subdivided. A coding tree depth may be further defined to indicate the splitting depth from the root node or root block. For example, the coding tree depth for the root node or root block, e.g., a 128×128 block, may be set to 0, and after the root block is further split once followingFIG.10, the coding tree depth is increased by 1. In some implementations, only the all-square partitions in1010may be allowed for recursive partitioning into the next level of the partitioning tree following pattern ofFIG.10. In other words, recursive partitioning may not be allowed for the square partitions within the T-type patterns1002,1004,1006, and1008. The partitioning procedure followingFIG.10with recursion, if needed, generates a final set of coding blocks. Such scheme may apply to one or more of the color channels. In some implementations, more flexibility may be added to the use of partitions below 8×8 level. For example, 2×2 chroma inter prediction may be used in certain cases.

In some other example implementations for coding block partitioning, a quadtree structure may be used for splitting a base block or an intermediate block into quadtree partitions. Such quadtree splitting may be applied hierarchically and recursively to any square shaped partitions. Whether a base block or an intermediate block or partition is further quadtree split may be adapted to various local characteristics of the base block or intermediate block/partition. Quadtree partitioning at picture boundaries may be further adapted. For example, implicit quadtree split may be performed at picture boundary so that a block will keep quadtree splitting until the size fits the picture boundary.

In some other example implementations, a hierarchical binary partitioning from a base block may be used. For such a scheme, the base block or an intermediate level block may be partitioned into two partitions. A binary partitioning may be either horizontal or vertical. For example, a horizontal binary partitioning may split a base block or intermediate block into equal right and left partitions. Likewise, a vertical binary partitioning may split a base block or intermediate block into equal upper and lower partitions. Such binary partitioning may be hierarchical and recursive. Decision may be made at each of the base block or intermediate block whether the binary partitioning scheme should continue, and if the scheme does continue further, whether a horizontal or vertical binary partitioning should be used. In some implementations, further partitioning may stop at a predefined lowest partition size (in either one or both dimensions). Alternatively, further partitioning may stop once a predefined partitioning level or depth from the base block is reached. In some implementations, the aspect ratio of a partition may be restricted. For example, the aspect ratio of a partition may not be smaller than 1:4 (or larger than 4:1). As such, a vertical strip partition with vertical to horizontal aspect ratio of 4:1, may only be further binary partitioned vertically into an upper and lower partitions each having a vertical to horizontal aspect ratio of 2:1.

In yet some other examples, a ternary partitioning scheme may be used for partitioning a base block or any intermediate block, as shown inFIG.13. The ternary pattern may be implemented vertical, as shown in1302ofFIG.13, or horizontal, as shown in1304ofFIG.13. While the example split ratio inFIG.13, either vertically or horizontally, is shown as 1:2:1, other ratios may be predefined. In some implementations, two or more different ratios may be predefined. Such ternary partitioning scheme may be used to complement the quadtree or binary partitioning structures in that such triple-tree partitioning is capable of capturing objects located in block center in one contiguous partition while quadtree and binary-tree are always splitting along block center and thus would split the object into separate partitions. In some implementations, the width and height of the partitions of the example triple trees are always power of 2 to avoid additional transforms.

The above partitioning schemes may be combined in any manner at different partitioning levels. As one example, the quadtree and the binary partitioning schemes described above may be combined to partition a base block into a quadtree-binary-tree (QTBT) structure. In such a scheme, a base block or an intermediate block/partition may be either quadtree split or binary split, subject to a set of predefined conditions, if specified. A particular example is illustrated inFIG.14. In the example ofFIG.14, a base block is first quadtree split into four partitions, as shown by1402,1404,1406, and1408. Thereafter, each of the resulting partitions is either quadtree partitioned into four further partitions (such as1408), or binarily split into two further partitions (either horizontally or vertically, such as1402or1406, both being symmetric, for example) at the next level, or non-split (such as1404). Binary or quadtree splitting may be allowed recursively for square shaped partitions, as shown by the overall example partition pattern of1410and the corresponding tree structure/representation in1420, in which the solid lines represent quadtree splitting, and the dashed lines represent binary splitting. Flags may be used for each binary splitting node (non-leaf binary partitions) to indicate whether the binary splitting is horizontal or vertical. For example, as shown in1420, consistent with the partitioning structure of1410, flag “0” may represent horizontal binary splitting, and flag “1” may represent vertical binary splitting. For the quadtree-split partition, there is no need to indicate the splitting type since quadtree splitting always splits a block or a partition both horizontally and vertically to produce 4 sub-blocks/partitions with an equal size. In some implementations, flag “1” may represent horizontal binary splitting, and flag “0” may represent vertical binary splitting.

In some example implementations of the QTBT, the quadtree and binary splitting ruleset may be represented by the following predefined parameters and the corresponding functions associated therewith:CTU size: the root node size of a quadtree (size of a base block)MinQTSize: the minimum allowed quadtree leaf node sizeMaxBTSize: the maximum allowed binary tree root node sizeMaxBTDepth: the maximum allowed binary tree depthMinBTSize: the minimum allowed binary tree leaf node size
In some example implementations of the QTBT partitioning structure, the CTU size may be set as 128×128 luma samples with two corresponding 64×64 blocks of chroma samples (when an example chroma sub-sampling is considered and used), the MinQTSize may be set as 16×16, the MaxBTSize may be set as 64×64, the MinBTSize (for both width and height) may be set as 4×4, and the MaxBTDepth may be set as 4. The quadtree partitioning may be applied to the CTU first to generate quadtree leaf nodes. The quadtree leaf nodes may have a size from its minimum allowed size of 16×16 (i.e., the MinQTSize) to 128×128 (i.e., the CTU size). If a node is 128×128, it will not be first split by the binary tree since the size exceeds the MaxBTSize (i.e., 64×64). Otherwise, nodes which do not exceed MaxBTSize could be partitioned by the binary tree. In the example ofFIG.14, the base block is 128×128. The basic block can only be quadtree split, according to the predefined ruleset. The base block has a partitioning depth of 0. Each of the resulting four partitions are 64×64, not exceeding MaxBTSize, may be further quadtree or binary-tree split at level 1. The process continues. When the binary tree depth reaches MaxBTDepth (i.e., 4), no further splitting may be considered. When the binary tree node has width equal to MinBTSize (i.e., 4), no further horizontal splitting may be considered. Similarly, when the binary tree node has height equal to MinBTSize, no further vertical splitting is considered.

In some example implementations, the QTBT scheme above may be configured to support a flexibility for the luma and chroma to have the same QTBT structure or separate QTBT structures. For example, for P and B slices, the luma and chroma CTBs in one CTU may share the same QTBT structure. However, for I slices, the luma CTBs maybe partitioned into CBs by a QTBT structure, and the chroma CTBs may be partitioned into chroma CBs by another QTBT structure. This means that a CU may be used to refer to different color channels in an I slice, e.g., the I slice may consist of a coding block of the luma component or coding blocks of two chroma components, and a CU in a P or B slice may consist of coding blocks of all three colour components.

In some other implementations, the QTBT scheme may be supplemented with ternary scheme described above. Such implementations may be referred to as multi-type-tree (MTT) structure. For example, in addition to binary splitting of a node, one of the ternary partition patterns ofFIG.13may be chosen. In some implementations, only square nodes may be subject to ternary splitting. An additional flag may be used to indicate whether a ternary partitioning is horizontal or vertical.

The design of two-level or multi-level tree such as the QTBT implementations and QTBT implementations supplemented by ternary splitting may be mainly motivated by complexity reduction. Theoretically, the complexity of traversing a tree is T D, where T denotes the number of split types, and D is the depth of tree. A tradeoff may be made by using multiple types (T) while reducing the depth (D).

In some implementations, a CB may be further partitioned. For example, a CB may be further partitioned into multiple prediction blocks (PBs) for purposes of intra or inter-frame prediction during coding and decoding processes. In other words, a CB may be further divided into different subpartitions, where individual prediction decision/configuration may be made. In parallel, a CB may be further partitioned into a plurality of transform blocks (TBs) for purposes of delineating levels at which transform or inverse transform of video data is performed. The partitioning scheme of a CB into PBs and TBs may or may not be the same. For example, each partitioning scheme may be performed using its own procedure based on, for example, the various characteristics of the video data. The PB and TB partitioning schemes may be independent in some example implementations. The PB and TB partitioning schemes and boundaries may be correlated in some other example implementations. I some implementations, for example, TBs may be partitioned after PB partitions, and in particular, each PB, after being determined following partitioning of a coding block, may then be further partitioned into one or more TBs. For example, in some implementations, a PB may be split into one, two, four, or other number of TBs.

In some implementations, for partitioning of a base block into coding blocks and further into prediction blocks and/or transform blocks, the luma channel and the chroma channels may be treated differently. For example, in some implementations, partitioning of a coding block into prediction blocks and/or transform blocks may be allowed for the luma channel, whereas such partitioning of a coding block into prediction blocks and/or transform blocks may not be allowed for the chroma channel(s). In such implementations, transform and/or prediction of luma blocks thus may be performed only at the coding block level. For another example, minimum transform block size for luma channel and chroma channel(s) may be different, e.g., coding blocks for luma channel may be allowed to be partitioned into smaller transform and/or prediction blocks than the chroma channels. For yet another example, the maximum depth of partitioning of a coding block into transform blocks and/or prediction blocks may be different between the luma channel and the chroma channels, e.g., coding blocks for luma channel may be allowed to be partitioned into deeper transform and/or prediction blocks than the chroma channel(s). For a specific example, luma coding blocks may be partitioned into transform blocks of multiple sizes that can be represented by a recursive partition going down by up to 2 levels, and transform block shapes such as square, 2:1/1:2, and 4:1/1:4 and transform block size from 4×4 to 64×64 may be allowed. For chroma blocks, however, only the largest possible transform blocks specified for the luma blocks may be allowed.

In some example implementations for partitioning of a coding block into PBs, the depth, the shape, and/or other characteristics of the PB partitioning may depend on whether the PB is intra or inter coded.

The partitioning of a coding block (or a prediction block) into transform blocks may be implemented in various example schemes, including but not limited to quadtree splitting and predefined pattern splitting, recursively or non-recursively, and with additional consideration for transform blocks at the boundary of the coding block or prediction block. In general, the resulting transform blocks may be at different split levels, may not be of the same size, and may not need to be square in shape (e.g., they can be rectangular with some allowed sizes and aspect ratios). Further examples are descried in further detail below in relation toFIGS.15,16and17.

In some other implementations, however, the CBs obtained via any of the partitioning schemes above may be used as a basic or smallest coding block for prediction and/or transform. In other words, no further splitting is performed for perform inter-prediction/intra-prediction purposes and/or for transform purposes. For example, CBs obtained from the QTBT scheme above may be directly used as the units for performing predictions. Specifically, such a QTBT structure removes the concepts of multiple partition types, i.e. it removes the separation of the CU, PU and TU, and supports more flexibility for CU/CB partition shapes as described above. In such QTBT block structure, a CU/CB can have either a square or rectangular shape. The leaf nodes of such QTBT are used as units for prediction and transform processing without any further partitioning. This means that the CU, PU and TU have the same block size in such example QTBT coding block structure.

The various CB partitioning schemes above and the further partitioning of CBs into PBs and/or TBs (including no PB/TB partitioning) may be combined in any manner. The following particular implementations are provided as non-limiting examples.

A specific example implementation of coding block and transform block partitioning is described below. In such an example implementation, a base block may be split into coding blocks using recursive quadtree splitting, or a predefined splitting pattern described above (such as those inFIG.9andFIG.10). At each level, whether further quadtree splitting of a particular partition should continue may be determined by local video data characteristics. The resulting CBs may be at various quadtree splitting levels, and of various sizes. The decision on whether to code a picture area using inter-picture (temporal) or intra-picture (spatial) prediction may be made at the CB level (or CU level, for all three-color channels). Each CB may be further split into one, two, four, or other number of PBs according to predefined PB splitting type. Inside one PB, the same prediction process may be applied and the relevant information may be transmitted to the decoder on a PB basis. After obtaining the residual block by applying the prediction process based on the PB splitting type, a CB can be partitioned into TBs according to another quadtree structure similar to the coding tree for the CB. In this particular implementation, a CB or a TB may but does not have to be limited to square shape. Further in this particular example, a PB may be square or rectangular shape for an inter-prediction and may only be square for intra-prediction. A coding block may be split into, e.g., four square-shaped TBs. Each TB may be further split recursively (using quadtree split) into smaller TBs, referred to as Residual Quadtree (RQT).

Another example implementation for partitioning of a base block into CBs, PBs and or TBs is further described below. For example, rather than using a multiple partition unit types such as those shown inFIG.9orFIG.10, a quadtree with nested multi-type tree using binary and ternary splits segmentation structure (e.g., the QTBT or QTBT with ternary splitting as descried above) may be used. The separation of the CB, PB and TB (i.e., the partitioning of CB into PBs and/or TBs, and the partitioning of PBs into TBs) may be abandoned except when needed for CBs that have a size too large for the maximum transform length, where such CBs may need further splitting. This example partitioning scheme may be designed to support more flexibility for CB partition shapes so that the prediction and transform can both be performed on the CB level without further partitioning. In such a coding tree structure, a CB may have either a square or rectangular shape. Specifically, a coding tree block (CTB) may be first partitioned by a quadtree structure. Then the quadtree leaf nodes may be further partitioned by a nested multi-type tree structure. An example of the nested multi-type tree structure using binary or ternary splitting is shown inFIG.11. Specifically, the example multi-type tree structure ofFIG.11includes four splitting types, referred to as vertical binary splitting (SPLIT_BT_VER) (1102), horizontal binary splitting (SPLIT_BT_HOR) (1104), vertical ternary splitting (SPLIT_TT_VER) (1106), and horizontal ternary splitting (SPLIT_TT_HOR) (1108). The CBs then correspond to leaves of the multi-type tree. In this example implementation, unless the CB is too large for the maximum transform length, this segmentation is used for both prediction and transform processing without any further partitioning. This means that, in most cases, the CB, PB and TB have the same block size in the quadtree with nested multi-type tree coding block structure. The exception occurs when maximum supported transform length is smaller than the width or height of the colour component of the CB. In some implementations, in addition to the binary or ternary splitting, the nested patterns ofFIG.11may further include quadtree splitting.

One specific example for the quadtree with nested multi-type tree coding block structure of block partition (including quadtree, binary, and ternary splitting options) for one base block is shown inFIG.12. In more detail,FIG.12shows that the base block1200is quadtree split into four square partitions1202,1204,1206, and1208. Decision to further use the multi-type tree structure ofFIG.11and quadtree for further splitting is made for each of the quadtree-split partitions. In the example ofFIG.12, partition1204is not further split. Partitions1202and1208each adopt another quadtree split. For partition1202, the second level quadtree-split top-left, top-right, bottom-left, and bottom-right partitions adopts third level splitting of quadtree, horizontal binary splitting1104ofFIG.11, non-splitting, and horizontal ternary splitting1108ofFIG.11, respectively. Partition1208adopts another quadtree split, and the second level quadtree-split top-left, top-right, bottom-left, and bottom-right partitions adopts third level splitting of vertical ternary splitting1106ofFIG.11, non-splitting, non-splitting, and horizontal binary splitting1104ofFIG.11, respectively. Two of the subpartitions of the third-level top-left partition of1208are further split according to horizontal binary splitting1104and horizontal ternary splitting1108ofFIG.11, respectively. Partition1206adopts a second level split pattern following the vertical binary splitting1102ofFIG.11into two partitions which are further split in a third-level according to horizontal ternary splitting1108and vertical binary splitting1102of theFIG.11. A fourth level splitting is further applied to one of them according to horizontal binary splitting1104ofFIG.11.

For the specific example above, the maximum luma transform size may be 64×64 and the maximum supported chroma transform size could be different from the luma at, e.g., 32×32. Even though the example CBs above inFIG.12are generally not further split into smaller PBs and/or TB s, when the width or height of the luma coding block or chroma coding block is larger than the maximum transform width or height, the luma coding block or chroma coding block may be automatically split in the horizontal and/or vertical direction to meet the transform size restriction in that direction.

In the specific example for partitioning of a base block into CBs above, and as descried above, the coding tree scheme may support the ability for the luma and chroma to have a separate block tree structure. For example, for P and B slices, the luma and chroma CTBs in one CTU may share the same coding tree structure. For I slices, for example, the luma and chroma may have separate coding block tree structures. When separate block tree structures are applied, luma CTB may be partitioned into luma CBs by one coding tree structure, and the chroma CTBs are partitioned into chroma CBs by another coding tree structure. This means that a CU in an I slice may consist of a coding block of the luma component or coding blocks of two chroma components, and a CU in a P or B slice always consists of coding blocks of all three colour components unless the video is monochrome.

When a coding block is further partitioned into multiple transform blocks, the transform blocks therein may be order in the bitstream following various order or scanning manners. Example implementations for partitioning a coding block or prediction block into transform blocks, and a coding order of the transform blocks are described in further detail below. In some example implementations, as descried above, a transform partitioning may support transform blocks of multiple shapes, e.g., 1:1 (square), 1:2/2:1, and 1:4/4:1, with transform block sizes ranging from, e.g., 4×4 to 64×64. In some implementations, if the coding block is smaller than or equal to 64×64, the transform block partitioning may only apply to luma component, such that for chroma blocks, the transform block size is identical to the coding block size. Otherwise, if the coding block width or height is greater than 64, then both the luma and chroma coding blocks may be implicitly split into multiples of min (W, 64)×min (H, 64) and min (W, 32)×min (H, 32) transform blocks, respectively.

In some example implementations of transform block partitioning, for both intra and inter coded blocks, a coding block may be further partitioned into multiple transform blocks with a partitioning depth up to a predefined number of levels (e.g., 2 levels). The transform block partitioning depth and sizes may be related. For some example implementations, a mapping from the transform size of the current depth to the transform size of the next depth is shown in the following in Table 1.

TABLE 1Transform partition size settingTransform Size ofTransform Size ofCurrent DepthNext DepthTX_4 × 4TX_4 × 4TX_8 × 8TX_4 × 4TX_16 × 16TX_8 × 8TX_32 × 32TX_16 × 16TX_64 × 64TX_32 × 32TX_4 × 8TX_4 × 4TX_8 × 4TX_4 × 4TX_8 × 16TX_8 × 8TX_16 × 8TX_8 × 8TX_16 × 32TX_16 × 16TX_32 × 16TX_16 × 16TX_32 × 64TX_32 × 32TX_64 × 32TX_32 × 32TX_4 × 16TX_4 × 8TX_16 × 4TX_8 × 4TX_8 × 32TX_8 × 16TX_32 × 8TX_16 × 8TX_16 × 64TX_16 × 32TX_64 × 16TX_32 × 16

Based on the example mapping of Table 1, for 1:1 square block, the next level transform split may create four 1:1 square sub-transform blocks. Transform partition may stop, for example, at 4×4. As such, a transform size for a current depth of 4×4 corresponds to the same size of 4×4 for the next depth. In the example of Table 1, for 1:2/2:1 non-square block, the next level transform split may create two 1:1 square sub-transform blocks, whereas for 1:4/4:1 non-square block, the next level transform split may create two 1:2/2:1 sub transform blocks.

In some example implementations, for luma component of an intra coded block, additional restriction may be applied with respect to transform block partitioning. For example, for each level of transform partitioning, all the sub-transform blocks may be restricted to having equal size. For example, for a 32×16 coding block, level 1 transform split creates two 16×16 sub-transform blocks, level 2 transform split creates eight 8×8 sub-transform blocks. In other words, the second level splitting must be applied to all first level sub blocks to keep the transform units at equal sizes. An example of the transform block partitioning for intra coded square block following Table 1 is shown inFIG.15, together with coding order illustrated by the arrows. Specifically, 1502 shows the square coding block. A first-level split into 4 equal sized transform blocks according to Table 1 is shown in1504with coding order indicated by the arrows. A second-level split of all of the first-level equal sized blocks into 16 equal sized transform blocks according to Table 1 is shown in1506with coding order indicated by the arrows.

In some example implementations, for luma component of inter coded block, the above restriction for intra coding may not be applied. For example, after the first level of transform splitting, any one of sub-transform block may be further split independently with one more level. The resulting transform blocks thus may or may not be of the same size. An example split of an inter coded block into transform locks with their coding order is show inFIG.16. In the Example ofFIG.16, the inter coded block1602is split into transform blocks at two levels according to Table 1. At the first level, the inter coded block is split into four transform blocks of equal size. Then only one of the four transform blocks (not all of them) is further split into four sub-transform blocks, resulting in a total of 7 transform blocks having two different sizes, as shown by1604. The example coding order of these 7 transform blocks is shown by the arrows in1604ofFIG.16.

In some example implementations, for chroma component(s), some additional restriction for transform blocks may apply. For example, for chroma component(s) the transform block size can be as large as the coding block size, but not smaller than a predefined size, e.g., 8×8.

In some other example implementations, for the coding block with either width (W) or height (II) being greater than 64, both the luma and chroma coding blocks may be implicitly split into multiples of min (W, 64)×min (H, 64) and min (W, 32)×min (H, 32) transform units, respectively. Here, in the present disclosure, a “min (a, b)” may return a smaller value between a and b.

FIG.17further shows another alternative example scheme for partitioning a coding block or prediction block into transform blocks. As shown inFIG.17, instead of using recursive transform partitioning, a predefined set of partitioning types may be applied to a coding block according a transform type of the coding block. In the particular example shown inFIG.17, one of the 6 example partitioning types may be applied to split a coding block into various number of transform blocks. Such scheme of generating transform block partitioning may be applied to either a coding block or a prediction block.

In more detail, the partitioning scheme ofFIG.17provides up to 6 example partition types for any given transform type (transform type refers to the type of, e.g., primary transform, such as ADST and others). In this scheme, every coding block or prediction block may be assigned a transform partition type based on, for example, a rate-distortion cost. In an example, the transform partition type assigned to the coding block or prediction block may be determined based on the transform type of the coding block or prediction block. A particular transform partition type may correspond to a transform block split size and pattern, as shown by the 6 transform partition types illustrated inFIG.17. A correspondence relationship between various transform types and the various transform partition types may be predefined. An example is shown below with the capitalized labels indicating the transform partition types that may be assigned to the coding block or prediction block based on rate distortion cost:PARTITION_NONE: Assigns a transform size that is equal to the block size.PARTITION_SPLIT: Assigns a transform size that is ½ the width of the block size and ½ the height of the block size.PARTITION_HORZ: Assigns a transform size with the same width as the block size and ½ the height of the block size.PARTITION_VERT: Assigns a transform size with ½ the width of the block size and the same height as the block size.PARTITION_HORZ4: Assigns a transform size with the same width as the block size and ¼ the height of the block size.PARTITION_VERT4: Assigns a transform size with ¼ the width of the block size and the same height as the block size.

In the example above, the transform partition types as shown inFIG.17all contain uniform transform sizes for the partitioned transform blocks. This is a mere example rather than a limitation. In some other implementations, mixed transform blocks sizes may be used for the partitioned transform blocks in a particular partition type (or pattern).

The PBs (or CBs, also referred to as PBs when not being further partitioned into prediction blocks) obtained from any of the partitioning schemes above may then become the individual blocks for coding via either intra or inter predictions. For inter-prediction for a current PB, a residual between the current block and a prediction block may be generated, coded, and included in the coded bitstream.

Inter-prediction may be implemented, for example, in a single-reference mode or a compound-reference mode. In some implementations, a skip flag may be first included in the bitstream for a current block (or at a higher level) for indicating whether the current block is inter-coded and is not to be skipped. If the current block is inter-coded, then another flag may be further included in the bitstream as a signal to indicate whether the single-reference mode or compound-reference mode is used for the current block. For the single-reference mode, one reference block may be used to generate the prediction block for the current block. For the compound-reference mode, two or more reference blocks may be used to generate the prediction block by, for example, weighted average. The compound-reference mode may be referred as more-than-one-reference mode, two-reference mode, or multiple-reference mode. The reference block or reference blocks may be identified using reference frame index or indices and additionally using corresponding motion vector or motion vectors which indicate shift(s) between the reference block(s) and the current blocks in location, e.g., in horizontal and vertical pixels. For example, the inter-prediction block for the current block may be generated from a single-reference block identified by one motion vector in a reference frame as the prediction block in the single-reference mode, whereas for the compound-reference mode, the prediction block may be generated by weighted averaging of two reference blocks in two reference frames indicated by two motion vectors. The motion vector(s) may be coded and included in the bitstream in various manners.

In some implementations, an encoding or decoding system may maintain a decoded picture buffer (DPB). Some images/pictures may be maintained in the DPB waiting for being displayed (in a decoding system) and some images/pictures in the DPB may be used as reference frames to enable inter-prediction. In some implementations, the reference frames in the DPB may be tagged as either short-term references or long-term references for a current image being encoded or decoded. For example, short-term reference frames may include frames that are used for inter-prediction for blocks in a current frame or in a predefined number (e.g., 2) of closest subsequent video frames to the current frame in order of decoding. The long-term reference frames may include frames in the DPB that can be used to predict image blocks in frames that are more than the predefined number of frames away from the current frame in the order of decoding. Information about such tags for short and long-term reference frames may be referred to as Reference Picture Set (RPS) and may be added to a header of each frame in the encoded bitstream. Each frame in the encoded video stream may be identified by a Picture Order Counter (POC), which is numbered according to play back sequence in an absolute manner or relevant to a picture group starting from, for example, an I-frame.

In some example implementations, one or more reference picture lists containing identification of short-term and long-term reference frames for inter-prediction may be formed based on the information in the RPS. For example, a single picture reference list may be formed for uni-directional inter-prediction, denoted as L0 reference (or reference list 0) whereas two picture referenced lists may be formed for bi-direction inter-prediction, denoted as L0 (or reference list 0) and L1 (or reference list 1) for each of the two prediction directions. The reference frames included in the L0 and L1 lists may be ordered in various predetermined manners. The lengths of the L0 and L1 lists may be signaled in the video bitstream. Uni-directional inter-prediction may be either in the single-reference mode, or in the compound-reference mode when the multiple references for generation of prediction block by weighted average in the compound prediction mode are on a same side of the block to be predicted. Bi-directional inter-prediction may only be compound mode in that bi-directional inter-prediction involves at least two reference blocks.

In some implementations, a merge mode (MM) for inter-prediction may be implemented. Generally, for the merge mode, the motion vector in single-reference prediction or one or more of the motion vectors in compound-reference prediction for the current PB may be derived from other motion vector(s) rather than being computed and signaled independently. For example, in an encoding system, the current motion vector(s) for the current PB may be reduced to difference(s) between the current motion vector(s) and other one or more already encoded motion vectors (referred to as reference motion vectors). Such difference(s) in motion vector(s) rather than the entirety of the current motion vector(s) may be encoded and included in the bit stream and may be linked to the reference motion vector(s). Correspondingly in a decoding system, the motion vector(s) corresponding to the current PB may be derived based on the decoded motion vector difference and decoded reference motion vector(s) linked therewith. As a specific form of the general merge mode (MM) inter-prediction, such inter-prediction based on motion vector differences may be referred to as Merge Mode with Motion Vector Difference (MMVD). MM in general or MMVD in particular may thus be implemented to leverage correlations between motion vectors associated with different PBs to improve coding efficiency. For example, neighboring PBs may have similar motion vectors. For another example, motion vectors may correlate temporally (between frames) for similarly located/positioned blocks in space.

In some example implementations, an MM flag may be included in a bitstream during an encoding process for indicating whether the current PB is in a merge mode. Additionally, or alternatively, an MMVD flag may be included during the encoding process and signaled in the bitstream to indicate whether the current PB is in an MMVD mode. The MM and/or MMVD flags or indicators may be provided at the PB level, the CB level, the CU level, the CTB level, the CTU level, slice level, picture level, and the like. For a particular example, both an MM flag and an MMVD flag may be included for a current CU, and the MMVD flag may be signalled right after the skip flag and the MM flag to specify whether the MMVD mode is used for the current CU.

In some example implementations of MMVD, a list of merge candidates for motion vector prediction may be formed for a block being predicted. The list of merge candidates may contain a predetermined number (e.g., 2) of MV predictor candidate blocks whose motion vectors may be used for predicting the current motion vector. The MVD candidate blocks may include blocks selected from neighboring blocks in the same frame and/or temporal blocks (e.g., identically located blocks in proceeding or subsequent frame of the current frame). These options represent blocks at spatial or temporal locations relative to the current block that are likely to have similar or identical motion vectors to the current block. The size of the list of MV predictor candidates may be predetermined. For example, the list may contain two candidates. To be on the list of merge candidate, a candidate block, for example, may be required to have the same reference frame (or frames) as the current block, must exist (e.g., when the current block is near the edge of the frame, a boundary check needs to be performed), and must be already encoded during an encoding process, and/or already decoded during a decoding process. In some implementations, the list of merge candidate may be first populated with spatially neighboring blocks (scanned in particular predefined order) if available and meeting the conditions above, and then the temporal block if space is still available in the list. The neighboring candidate blocks, for example, may be selected from left and top blocks of the current bock. The list of merge MV predictor candidates may be signaled in the bitstream.

In some implementations, an actual merge candidate being used as a reference motion vector for predicting a motion vector of the current block may be signaled. In the case that the merge candidate list contains two candidates, a one-bit flag, referred to as merge candidate flag may be used for indicating the selection of the reference merge candidate. For a current block being predicted in compound mode, each of the multiple motion vectors predicted using a MV predictor may be associated with reference motion vector from the merge candidate list.

In some example implementations of MMVD, after a merge candidate is selected and used as base motion vector predictor for a motion vector to be predicted, a motion vector difference (MVD or a delta MV, representing the difference between the motion vector to be predicted and the reference candidate motion vector) may be calculated in the encoding system. Such MVD may include information representing a magnitude of MV difference and a direction of the MV difference, which may be signaled in the bitstream. The motion difference magnitude and the motion difference direction may be signaled in various manners.

In some example implementations of the MMVD, a distance index may be used to specify magnitude information of the motion vector difference and indicate one of a set of predefined offsets representing predefined motion vector difference from the starting point (the reference motion vector). A MV offset according to the signaled index may then be added to either horizontal component or vertical component of the starting (reference) motion vector. Either the horizontal or vertical components of the reference motion vector should be offset is determined by the example directional information of the MVD. An example predefined relation between distance index and predefined offsets is specified in Table 2.

TABLE 2Example relation of distance index and pre-defined MV offsetDistance Index01234567Offset (in unit of¼½12481632luma sample)

In some example implementations of the MMVD, a direction index may be further signaled and used to represent a direction of the MVD relative to the reference motion vector. In some implementations, the direction may be restricted to either one of the horizontal and vertical directions. An example 2-bit direction index is shown in Table 3. In the example of Table 3, the interpretation of the MVD could be variant according to the information of the starting/reference MVs. For example, when the starting/reference MV corresponds to a uni-prediction block or corresponds to a bi-prediction block with both reference frame lists point to the same side of the current picture (i.e. POCs of two reference pictures are both larger than the POC of the current picture, or are both smaller than the POC of the current picture), the sign in Table 3 may specify the sign (direction) of MV offset added to the starting/reference MV. When the starting/reference MV corresponds to a bi-prediction block with the two reference pictures at different sides of the current picture (i.e. the POC of one reference picture is larger than the POC of the current picture, and the POC of the other reference picture is smaller than the POC of the current picture), and a difference between the reference POC in picture reference list 0 and the current frame is greater than that between the reference POC in picture reference list 1 and the current frame, the sign in Table 3 may specify the sign of MV offset added to the reference MV corresponding to the reference picture in picture reference list 0, and the sign for the offset of the MV corresponding to the reference picture in picture reference list 1 may have an opposite value (opposite sign for the offset). Otherwise, if the difference between the reference POC in picture reference list 1 and the current frame is greater than that between the reference POC in picture reference list 0 and the current frame, the sign in Table 3 may then specify the sign of MV offset added to the reference MV associated with the picture reference list 1 and the sign for the offset to the reference MV associated with the picture reference list 0 has opposite value.

TABLE 3Example implementations for sign of MVoffset specified by direction indexDirection IDX00011011x-axis (horizontal)+−N/AN/Ay-axis (vertical)N/AN/A+−

In some example implementations, the MVD may be scaled according to the difference of POCs in each direction. If the differences of POCs in both lists are the same, no scaling is needed. Otherwise, if the difference of POC in reference list 0 is larger than the one of reference list 1, the MVD for reference list 1 is scaled. If the POC difference of reference list 1 is greater than list 0, the MVD for list 0 may be scaled in the same way. If the starting MV is uni-predicted, the MVD is added to the available or reference MV.

In some example implementations of MVD coding and signaling for bi-directional compound prediction, in addition or alternative to separately coding and signal the two MVDs, a symmetric MVD coding may be implemented such that only one MVD needs signaling and the other MVD may be derived from the signaled MVD. In such implementations, motion information including reference picture indices of both list-0 and list-1 is signaled. However, only MVD associated with, e.g., reference list-0 is signaled and MVD associated with reference list-1 is not signaled but derived. Specifically, at a slice level, a flag may be included in the bitstream, referred to as “mvd_l1_zero_flag,” for indicating whether the reference list-1 is not signaled in the bitstream. If this flag is 1, indicating that reference list-1 is equal to zero (and thus not signaled), then a bi-directional-prediction flag, referred to as “BiDirPredFlag” may be set to 0, meaning that there is no bi-directional-prediction. Otherwise, if mvd_l1_zero_flag is zero, if the nearest reference picture in list-0 and the nearest reference picture in list-1 form a forward and backward pair of reference pictures or a backward and forward pair of reference pictures, BiDirPredFlag may be set to 1, and both list-0 and list-1 reference pictures are short-term reference pictures. Otherwise BiDirPredFlag is set to 0. BiDirPredFlag of 1 indicates that a symmetrical mode flag is additionally signalled in the bitstream. The decoder may extract the symmetrical mode flag from the bitstream when BiDirPredFlag is 1. The symmetrical mode flag, for example, may be signaled (if needed) at the CU level and it indicates whether symmetrical MVD coding mode is being used for the corresponding CU. When the symmetrical mode flag is 1, it indicates the use of symmetrical MVD coding mode, and that only reference picture indices of both list-0 and list-1 (referred to as “mvp_l0_flag” and “mvp_l1_flag”) are signaled with MVD associated with the list-0 (referred to as “MVD0”), and that the other motion vector difference, “MVD1”, is to be derived rather than signaled. For example, MVD1 may be derived as −MVD0. As such, only one MVD is signaled in the example symmetrical MVD mode. In some other example implementations for MV prediction, a harmonized scheme may be used to implement a general merge mode, MMVD, and some other types of MV prediction, for both single-reference and compound-reference mode MV prediction. Various syntax elements may be used to signal the manner in which the MV for a current block is predicted.

For example, for single-reference mode, the following MV prediction modes may be signaled:

NEARMV—use one of the motion vector predictors (MVP) in the list indicated by a DRL (Dynamic Reference List) index directly without any MVD.

NEWMV—use one of the motion vector predictors (MVP) in the list signaled by a DRL index as reference and apply a delta to the MVP (e.g., using MVD).

GLOBALMV—use a motion vector based on frame-level global motion parameters.

Likewise, for the compound-reference inter-prediction mode using two reference frames corresponding to two MVs to be predicted, the following MV prediction modes may be signaled:

NEAR_NEARMV—use one of the motion vector predictors (MVP) in the list signaled by a DRL index without MVD for each of the two of MVs to be predicted.

NEAR_NEWMV—for predicting the first of the two motion vectors, use one of the motion vector predictors (MVP) in the list signaled by a DRL index as reference MV with out MVD; for predicting the second of the two motion vectors, use one of the motion vector predictors (MVP) in the list signaled by a DRL index as reference MV in conjunction with an additionally signaled delta MV (an MVD).

NEW_NEARMV—for predicting the second of the two motion vectors, use one of the motion vector predictors (MVP) in the list signaled by a DRL index as reference MV with out MVD; for predicting the first of the two motion vectors, use one of the motion vector predictors (MVP) in the list signaled by a DRL index as reference MV in conjunction with an additionally signaled delta MV (an MVD).

NEW_NEWMV—use one of the motion vector predictors (MVP) in the list signaled by a DRL index as reference MV and use it in conjunction with an additionally signaled delta MV to predict for each of the two MVs.

GLOBAL_GLOBALMV—use MVs from each reference based on their frame-level global motion parameters.

The term “NEAR” above thus refers to MV prediction using reference MV without MVD as a general merge mode, whereas the term “NEW” refers to MV prediction involving using a referend MV and offsetting it with a signaled MVD as in an MMVD mode. For the compound inter-prediction, both the reference base motion vectors and the motion vector deltas above, may be generally different or independent between the two references, even though they may be correlated and such correlation may be leveraged to reduce the amount of information needed for signaling the two motion vector deltas. In such situations, a joint signaling of the two MVDs may be implemented and indicated in the bitstream.

The dynamic reference list (DRL) above may be used to hold a set of indexed motion vectors that are dynamically maintained and are considered as candidate motion vector predictors.

In some example implementations, an optical flow based approach may be used to refine motion vectors (MVs) at subblock wise for compound prediction. In particular, the optical flow equation may be applied to formulate a least squares problem, from which fine motions may be derived from gradients of compound inter prediction samples. With those fine motions, the MV per subblock may be refined within a prediction block, which may enhance inter prediction quality. Some coding feature may be an extension of the concept of the bi-directional optical flow (BDOF), since it supports MV refinement when the two reference blocks have arbitrary temporal distances to the current block.

In some implementations, four additional inter compound modes may be added, which are listed below: NEAR_NEARMV_OPTFLOW, NEAR_NEWMV_OPTFLOW, NEW_NEARMV_OPTFLOW, and/or NEW_NEWMV_OPTFLOW.

These modes may be referred as optical flow modes, and the reference MV types may be defined as in the conventional compound modes (e.g., NEAR_NEWMV_OPTFLOW having the same reference MV types as in NEAR_NEWMV). The compound prediction may be performed based on the subblock-wise refined MVs instead of the original MVs.

The various embodiments and/or implementations described in the present disclosure may be used separately or combined in any order. Further, a portion, all, or any partial or whole combinations of these embodiments and/or implementations may be embodied as a portion of an encoder and/or a decoder, and may be implemented in hardware and/or software. For example, they may be hard coded in dedicated processing circuitry (e.g., one or more integrated circuits). In one other example, they may be implemented by one or more processors executing a program that is stored in a non-transitory computer-readable medium.

There may be some issues/problems associated with some implementations of signaling methods for motion vector difference, for example, how the delta MV(s) is signaled in a NEW_NEARMV mode, a NEAR_NEWMV mode, or a NEW_NEWMV mode. One of the issues/problems may be that the correlation of motion vector differences in two reference lists are not exploited, thus lowering the efficiency and performance of coding/decoding.

The present disclosure describes various embodiment for signaling motion vector difference (MVD or delta MV) for inter-prediction mode coding and/or decoding, addressing at least one of the issues/problems discussed above, achieving an efficient software/hardware implementation for improved inter-predication mode coding/decoding.

In various embodiment, referring toFIG.18, a method1800for decoding an inter-predicted video block. The method1800may include a portion or all of the following step: step1810, receiving, by a device comprising a memory storing instructions and a processor in communication with the memory, a coded video bitstream; step1820, extracting, by the device from the coded video bitstream, a flag indicating whether an inter-predication mode is a JOINT_NEWMV mode for a current block in a current frame, wherein the JOINT_NEWMV mode indicates that a first delta motion vector (MV) for a first reference frame from a reference list 0 and a second delta MV for a second reference frame from a reference list 1 are jointly signaled; step1830, in response to the flag indicating that the inter-predication mode is the JOINT_NEWMV mode: extracting, by the device from the coded video bitstream, a joint delta motion vector (MV) for the current block, and deriving, by the device, the first delta MV and the second delta MV based on the joint delta MV; and/or step1840, decoding, by the device, the current block in the current frame based on the first delta MV and the second delta MV.

In some implementations, step1820may include extracting, by the device from the coded video bitstream, an inter-predication mode for a current block in a current frame; and/or step1830may include in response to the inter-predication mode being a mode indicating that a first delta MV for a first reference frame and a second delta MV for a second reference frame are jointly signaled: extracting, by the device from the coded video bitstream, a joint delta motion vector (MV) for the current block, and deriving, by the device, the first delta MV and the second delta MV based on the joint delta MV. The mode indicating that a first delta MV for a first reference frame and a second delta MV for a second reference frame are jointly signaled may be the JOINT_NEWMV mode.

In various embodiments in the present disclosure, a size of a block (for example but not limited to, a coding block, a prediction block, or a transform block) may refer to a width or a height of the block. The width or the height of the block may be an integer in a unit of pixels. In various embodiments in the present disclosure, a size of a block may refer to an area size of the block. The area size of the block may be an integer calculated by the width of the block multiplied by the height of the bock in a unit of pixels. In some various embodiments in the present disclosure, a size of a block may refer to a maximum value of a width or a height of the block, a minimum value of a width or a height of the block, or an aspect ratio of the block. The aspect ratio of the block may be calculated as the width divided by the height of the block, or may be calculated as the height divided by the width of the block.

Here in some embodiments of the present disclosure, a “first” reference frame may not only refer to “one” reference frame, but refers to the “first” reference frame (e.g., having a smallest index, or appearing earliest in a sequence) among a plurality of reference frames, a “second” reference frame may not only refer to “another” reference frame, but refers to the “second” reference frame (e.g., having a second smallest index or appearing second earliest in a sequence) among the plurality of reference frame.

Here in various embodiments of the present disclosure, that “XYZ is signaled” may refer to that XYZ is encoded into a coded bitstream during an encoding process; and/or, after the coded bitstream is transmitted from one device to another device, that “XYZ is signaled” may refer to that XYZ is decoded/extracted from a coded bitstream during a decoding process.

Here in various embodiments in the present disclosure, a direction of a reference frame may be determined by whether the reference frame is prior to current frame in display order or after current frame in display order. In some implementations for compound reference mode, when picture order counts (POCs) of both reference frames for one motion vector pair are greater than or less than the POC of current frame, then direction of two reference frames are the same. Otherwise, when POC of one reference frame is greater than the POC of current frame whereas the POC of the other reference frame is less than the POC of current frame, then direction of two reference frames are different.

Here in various embodiments in the present disclosure, a “block” may refer to a prediction block, a coding block, a transform block, or a coding unit (CU).

Referring to step1810, the device may be the electronic device (530) inFIG.5or the video decoder (810) inFIG.8. In some implementations, the device may be the decoder (633) in the encoder (620) inFIG.6. In other implementations, the device may be a portion of the electronic device (530) inFIG.5, a portion of the video decoder (810) inFIG.8, or a portion of the decoder (633) in the encoder (620) inFIG.6. The coded video bitstream may be the coded video sequence inFIG.8, or an intermediate coded data inFIG.6or7.

Referring to step1820, the device may extract, from the coded video bitstream, an inter-predication mode for a current block in a current frame. In some implementations, the current block may be in a compound reference mode. The inter-predication mode may be a new inter coded mode, for example, JOINT_NEWMV, indicating that a first delta MV for a first reference frame and a second delta MV for a second reference frame are jointly signaled.

Referring to step1830, in response to the inter-predication mode being a mode indicating that a first delta MV for a first reference frame and a second delta MV for a second reference frame are jointly signaled: the device may extract, from the coded video bitstream, a joint delta motion vector (MV) for the current block, and derive the first delta MV and the second delta MV based on the joint delta MV.

In some implementations, the mode may be a new inter coded mode, named as JOINT_NEWMV mode, which indicates that the delta MVs for multiple reference lists (e.g., reference list 0 and reference list 1) are jointly signaled and/or transmitted. Under the circumstances where the current frame is inter-predicated based on two reference frames, when the inter-predication mode is equal to JOINT_NEWMV mode, delta MVs for a first reference frame indicated by a first reference list (reference list 0) and a second reference frame indicated by a second reference list (reference list 1) are jointly signaled. Thus, only one delta MV, for example named as joint delta mv, may be signaled and transmitted to decode the current block, wherein the delta MVs for the reference list 0 and the reference list 1 may be derived from the joint delta MV (joint_delta_mv). The joint delta MV may be referred as a MV difference (MVD).

In some other implementations, the mode is one of compound reference modes; and a syntax term, which may be simplified as syntax, extracted from the coded video bitstream indicates the inter-predication mode.

In some other implementations, the mode is a JOINT_NEWMV mode; and the inter-predication mode is one of the following: the JOINT_NEWMV mode, a NEAR_NEARMV mode, a NEAR_NEWMV mode, a NEW_NEARMV mode, a NEW_NEWMV mode, and a GLOBAL_GLOBALMV mode.

In some other implementations, whether the inter-predication mode is the mode (or the JOINT_NEWMV mode) is based on at least one of the following: a first picture order count (POC) distance between the first reference frame and the current frame, a second POC distance between the second reference frame and the current frame, and/or a direction relationship of the first reference frame and the second reference frame relative to the current frame.

In some other implementations, in response to the direction relationship indicating opposite direction or the first POC distance being equal to the second POC distance, the inter-predication mode is the mode. In some other implementations, in response to the direction relationship indicating opposite direction and the first POC distance being equal to the second POC distance, the inter-predication mode is the mode.

In some other implementations, the method1800may further include deriving, by the device, a context for deriving the inter-predication mode based on at least one of the following: a first picture order count (POC) distance between the first reference frame and the current frame, a second POC distance between the second reference frame and the current frame, or a direction relationship of the first reference frame and the second reference frame relative to the current frame.

In some other implementations, when the current block is coded as compound reference mode, one syntax may be signaled to indicate whether the JOINT_NEWMV mode is used for the current block or not.

In some other implementations, the JOINT_NEWMV mode may be a new mode added to the list of compound reference modes, so that the list of compound reference modes may include the JOINT_NEWMV mode, a NEAR_NEARMV mode, a NEAR_NEWMV mode, a NEW_NEARMV mode, a NEW_NEWMV mode, and a GLOBAL_GLOBALMV mode. Thus, the JOINT_NEWMV mode may be signaled and/or transmitted in a similar manner (e.g., via a common syntax) as any of the NEAR_NEARMV mode, the NEAR_NEWMV mode, the NEW_NEARMV mode, the NEW_NEWMV mode, and/or the GLOBAL_GLOBALMV mode.

In some other implementations, the JOINT_NEWMV mode may be conditionally signaled based on the direction of two reference frames and/or the distance of two reference frames to current frames. For example, the JOINT_NEWMV mode may be only signaled when the direction of two reference frames are different and/or the absolute values of the distances of two reference frames to current frame are the same.

In some other implementations, a context for signaling the JOINT_NEWMV mode may depend on a direction relationship of two reference frames and/or the distances of two reference frames to current frames. The direction relationship of the two reference frames relative to the current frame may refer to whether the directions of the two reference frames are same or opposite. The distances of two reference frames to current frames may refer to the POC distances of the two reference frames relative to the current frame, which may include at least one of the following: whether the absolute values of the POC distances of two reference frames to current frames are same or different; the ratio of the POC distances of two reference frames to current frames; and/or whether the absolute value of a first POC distance for a first reference frame in the two reference frames is larger than the absolute value of a second POC distance for a second reference frame in the two reference frames.

In various embodiments/implementations in the present disclosure, in step1803, the deriving the first delta MV and the second delta MV based on the joint delta MV may include determining one of the two delta MV as the joint delta MV, and scaling the joint delta MV to obtain the other of the delta MV according to at least one of the following: a first POC distance between the first reference frame and the current frame, a second POC distance between the second reference frame and the current frame, or a direction relationship of the first reference frame and the second reference frame relative to the current frame. In some implementations, the scaling may be a linear scaling method, i.e., an absolute value of the scaled delta MV may be proportionally to the ratio of the second POC distance divided by the first POC distance, and a sign of the scaled delta MV may be determined according to the direction relationship. For one example, when the first POC distance is 4 and the second POC distance is 8 and the direction relationship being same direction for the first and second reference frames relative to the current frame, the second delta MV is obtained by scaling/multiplying the joint delta MV by a factor of 2 (=8/4); and the second delta MV has same sign as the joint delta MV because the direction relationship being same direction. For another example, when the first POC distance is 3 and the second POC distance is −9 and the direction relationship being opposite direction for the first and second reference frames relative to the current frame, the second delta MV is obtained by scaling/multiplying the joint delta MV by a factor of −3 (=−9/3); and the second delta MV has opposite sign as the joint delta MV because the direction relationship being opposite direction.

In some other implementations, in response to the inter-predication mode being the mode, performing, by the device, optical flow motion refinement on the current block.

In some other implementations, the method1800may further include extracting, by the device from the coded video bitstream, a flag indicating whether optical flow motion refinement is performed to the mode; and in response to the flag indicating that the optical flow motion refinement is performed to the mode, performing, by the device, the optical flow motion refinement on the current block. In some other implementations, the flag may be signaled and/or transmitted in a high-level syntax comprising at least one of the following: a sequence parameter set (SPS), a video parameter set (VPS), a picture parameter set (PPS), a picture header, a tile header, a slice header, a frame header, a coding tree unit (CTU) header, or a superblock header.

In some other implementations, the method1800may further include extracting, by the device from the coded video bitstream, a flag indicating whether the mode is applicable to the current block.

In some other implementations, the optical flow motion refinement is always applied to the JOINT_NEWMV mode.

In some other implementations, a flag/syntax is signaled to indicate whether optical flow motion refinement is applied to the JOINT_NEWMV mode or not.

In some other implementations, a flag is signaled in high-level syntax, including but not limited to SPS, VPS, PPS, picture header, tile header, slice header, frame header, CTU (or superblock) header to indicate whether the JOINT_NEWMV mode can be used or not.

In some implementations for compound reference mode, a first flag/syntax, which may be named as optflow_flag, may be transmitted to the device to indicate whether the optical flow motion refinement is applied to the JOINT_NEWMV mode or not. In some implementations, the value of the first flag being 0 may indicate that the optical flow motion refinement is applied to the JOINT_NEWMV mode (e.g., a JOINT_NEWMV_OPTFLOW mode); and the value of the first flag being 1 may indicate that the optical flow motion refinement is not applied to the JOINT_NEWMV mode. Vice versa, in some other implementations, the value of the first flag being 1 may indicate that the optical flow motion refinement is applied to the JOINT_NEWMV mode (e.g., a JOINT_NEWMV_OPTFLOW mode); and the value of the first flag being 0 may indicate that the optical flow motion refinement is not applied to the JOINT_NEWMV mode.

In some implementations for compound reference mode, a second flag/syntax, which, for example, may be named as joint_mvd_flag, may be transmitted to the device to indicate whether the JOINT_NEWMV mode can be used or not.

In some other implementations, in response to a value of the second flag (e.g., joint_mvd_flag) indicating that delta MVs for the JOINT_NEWMV mode can be used, only one joint delta MV, which, for example, may be named as joint_delta_mv, is signaled and transmitted to the decoder, and the delta MVs for the reference list 0 and the reference list 1 may be derived from the joint delta MV (e.g., joint_delta_mv). In response to the value of the second flag (e.g., joint_mvd_flag) indicating that the JOINT_NEWMV mode may not be used, zero or one or two delta MVs may be signaled for reference list 0 and/or reference list 1 separately based on the inter prediction modes. For example, when it's “NEAR” for a single inter mode or two are “NEAR” for a compound mode, wherein under some circumstance none of delta MV may be needed, zero delta MV may be signaled/transmitted; when it's “NEW” for a single inter mode, or one “NEW” and one “NEAR” for another inter predication mode, one delta MV may be signaled/transmitted; when it's two “NEW” for an inter predication mode, two delta MVs may be signaled/transmitted.

In some implementations, the value of the second flag being 0 may indicate that the JOINT_NEWMV mode can be used, e.g., delta MVs for the reference list 0 and the reference list 1 are jointly signaled and only one joint delta MV is signaled and transmitted; and the value of the second flag being 1 may indicate that the JOINT_NEWMV mode cannot be used, e.g., delta MVs for the reference list 0 and the reference list 1 are not jointly signaled and zero (or one or two) joint delta MV may be signaled and transmitted. Vice versa, in some other implementations, the value of the second flag being 1 may indicate that the JOINT_NEWMV mode can be used; and the value of the flag being 0 may indicate that the JOINT_NEWMV mode cannot be used.

In some implementations, when an inter prediction mode of a current block is the JOINT_NEWMV mode and/or a flag (e.g., joint_mvd_flag) indicates that delta MVs for the reference list 0 and the reference list 1 are jointly signaled, the delta MV for one reference list (e.g., reference list 0 or reference list 1) may be determined as the joint_delta_mv; and the delta MV for another reference list may be derived from joint_delta_mv based on the POC distance of the first and second reference frames to the current frame and a direction of two reference frames.

In some other implementations, the inter-predication mode of the current block is the JOINT_NEWMV mode; and step1830may include determining the first delta MV as the joint delta MV, and determining the second delta MV by scaling the joint delta MV according to at least one of the following: a first picture order count (POC) distance between the first reference frame and the current frame, a second POC distance between the second reference frame and the current frame, or a direction relationship of the first reference frame and the second reference frame relative to the current frame.

In some other implementations, the inter-predication mode of the current block is the JOINT_NEWMV mode; and step1830may include determining the second delta MV as the joint delta MV, and determining the first delta MV by scaling the joint delta MV according to at least one of the following: a first picture order count (POC) distance between the first reference frame and the current frame, a second POC distance between the second reference frame and the current frame, or a direction relationship of the first reference frame and the second reference frame relative to the current frame.

In some embodiments, the delta MV in the reference list 0 (or list 1) may be always set equal to the joint_delta_mv, and the delta MV in the reference list 1 (or list 0) may be scaled from the joint_delta_mv according to the POC distances of the reference frames to current frame and/or the direction of two reference frames.

In some other implementations, the inter-predication mode of the current block is the JOINT_NEWMV mode; and step1830may include, in response to a first absolute POC distance between the first reference frame and the current frame being larger than a second absolute POC distance between the second reference frame and the current frame: determining the first delta MV as the joint delta MV, and determining the second delta MV by scaling the joint delta MV according to at least one of the following: a first POC distance between the first reference frame and the current frame, a second POC distance between the second reference frame and the current frame, or a direction relationship of the first reference frame and the second reference frame relative to the current frame.

In some other implementations, the inter-predication mode of the current block is the JOINT_NEWMV mode; and step1830may include, in response to a first absolute POC distance between the first reference frame and the current frame being smaller than a second absolute POC distance between the second reference frame and the current frame: determining the second delta MV as the joint delta MV, and determining the first delta MV by scaling the joint delta MV according to at least one of the following: a first POC distance between the first reference frame and the current frame, a second POC distance between the second reference frame and the current frame, or a direction relationship of the first reference frame and the second reference frame relative to the current frame.

In some embodiments, when an absolute POC distance between the reference list (or list 1) and the current frame is greater than an absolute POC distance between the reference list 1 (or list 0) and the current frame, the delta MV in the reference list 0 (or list 1), which is the one with larger absolute POC distance, may be set equal to the joint_delta_mv. The delta MV in the reference list 1 (or list 0), which is the another one with smaller absolute POC distance, may be scaled from the joint_delta_mv according to the POC distances of the reference frames to the current frame and/or the direction of two reference frames.

In some other implementations, the inter-predication mode of the current block is the JOINT_NEWMV mode; and step1830may include, in response to a first absolute POC distance between the first reference frame and the current frame being equal to a second absolute POC distance between the second reference frame and the current frame: determining the first delta MV as the joint delta MV, in response to a direction relationship of the first reference frame and the second reference frame relative to the current frame being same: determining the second delta MV as the joint delta MV, and in response to the direction relationship of the first reference frame and the second reference frame relative to the current frame being opposite: determining the second delta MV as the joint delta MV multiplied by −1.

In some other implementations, when an absolute POC distance between the reference list 1 and the current frame is the same with an absolute POC distance between the reference list 0 and the current frame, the delta MV in the reference list 0 may be set equal to joint_delta_mv. When the directions of two reference frames are the same, the delta MV in the reference list 1 may be set equal to the joint_delta_mv as well. Otherwise, when the directions of two reference frames are different, the delta MV for the reference list 1 is set to be the joint_delta_mv multiplied by −1.

In some other implementations, an optical flow based approach may be used to refine motion vectors (MVs) at subblock wise for compound prediction. In particular, the optical flow equation may be applied to formulate a least squares problem, from which fine motions may be derived from gradients of compound inter prediction samples. With those fine motions, the MV per subblock may be refined within a prediction block, which may enhance inter prediction quality. Some coding feature may be an extension of the concept of the bi-directional optical flow (BDOF), since it supports MV refinement when the two reference blocks have arbitrary temporal distances to the current block.

With BDOF, bi-predictive prediction of a current block is enhanced via higher-precision motion vectors derived from its two reference blocks. With the higher precision motion vector (e.g., via optical flow refinement), prediction error of the motion vectors may be reduced, resulting in better coding performance. In some other implementations, one or more additional inter compound modes may be added, which may include a NEAR_NEARMV_OPTFLOW mode (e.g., a NEAR_NEARMV mode with optical flow motion vector refinement), a NEAR_NEWMV_OPTFLOW mode (e.g., a NEAR_NEWMV mode with optical flow motion vector refinement), a NEW_NEARMV_OPTFLOW mode (e.g., a NEW_NEARMV mode with optical flow motion vector refinement), and/or a NEW_NEWMV_OPTFLOW mode (e.g., a NEW_NEWMV mode with optical flow motion vector refinement). These above inter compound modes with optical flow motion vector refinement may be referred as optical flow modes, and the reference MV types may be defined as in the conventional compound modes (e.g., NEAR_NEWMV_OPTFLOW having the same reference MV types as in NEAR_NEWMV). The compound prediction may be performed based on the subblock-wise refined MVs instead of the original MVs.

Embodiments in the disclosure may be used separately or combined in any order. Any steps and/or operations in any embodiments in the present disclosure may be combined or arranged in any amount or order, as desired. Two or more of the steps and/or operations in any embodiments in the present disclosure may be performed in parallel. Further, each of the methods (or embodiments), an encoder, and a decoder may be implemented by processing circuitry (e.g., one or more processors or one or more integrated circuits). In one example, the one or more processors execute a program that is stored in a non-transitory computer-readable medium. Embodiments in the disclosure may be applied to a luma block or a chroma block.

The techniques described above, can be implemented as computer software using computer-readable instructions and physically stored in one or more computer-readable media. For example,FIG.19shows a computer system (2000) suitable for implementing certain embodiments of the disclosed subject matter.

The computer software can be coded using any suitable machine code or computer language, that may be subject to assembly, compilation, linking, or like mechanisms to create code comprising instructions that can be executed directly, or through interpretation, micro-code execution, and the like, by one or more computer central processing units (CPUs), Graphics Processing Units (GPUs), and the like.

The instructions can be executed on various types of computers or components thereof, including, for example, personal computers, tablet computers, servers, smartphones, gaming devices, internet of things devices, and the like.

The components shown inFIG.19for computer system (2000) are exemplary in nature and are not intended to suggest any limitation as to the scope of use or functionality of the computer software implementing embodiments of the present disclosure. Neither should the configuration of components be interpreted as having any dependency or requirement relating to any one or combination of components illustrated in the exemplary embodiment of a computer system (2000).

Computer system (2000) may include certain human interface input devices. Such a human interface input device may be responsive to input by one or more human users through, for example, tactile input (such as: keystrokes, swipes, data glove movements), audio input (such as: voice, clapping), visual input (such as: gestures), olfactory input (not depicted). The human interface devices can also be used to capture certain media not necessarily directly related to conscious input by a human, such as audio (such as: speech, music, ambient sound), images (such as: scanned images, photographic images obtain from a still image camera), video (such as two-dimensional video, three-dimensional video including stereoscopic video).

Input human interface devices may include one or more of (only one of each depicted): keyboard (2001), mouse (2002), trackpad (2003), touch screen (2010), data-glove (not shown), joystick (2005), microphone (2006), scanner (2007), camera (2008).

Computer system (2000) may also include certain human interface output devices. Such human interface output devices may be stimulating the senses of one or more human users through, for example, tactile output, sound, light, and smell/taste. Such human interface output devices may include tactile output devices (for example tactile feedback by the touch-screen (2010), data-glove (not shown), or joystick (2005), but there can also be tactile feedback devices that do not serve as input devices), audio output devices (such as: speakers (2009), headphones (not depicted)), visual output devices (such as screens (2010) to include CRT screens, LCD screens, plasma screens, OLED screens, each with or without touch-screen input capability, each with or without tactile feedback capability—some of which may be capable to output two dimensional visual output or more than three dimensional output through means such as stereographic output; virtual-reality glasses (not depicted), holographic displays and smoke tanks (not depicted)), and printers (not depicted).

Computer system (2000) can also include human accessible storage devices and their associated media such as optical media including CD/DVD ROM/RW (2020) with CD/DVD or the like media (2021), thumb-drive (2022), removable hard drive or solid state drive (2023), legacy magnetic media such as tape and floppy disc (not depicted), specialized ROM/ASIC/PLD based devices such as security dongles (not depicted), and the like.

Those skilled in the art should also understand that term “computer readable media” as used in connection with the presently disclosed subject matter does not encompass transmission media, carrier waves, or other transitory signals.

Computer system (2000) can also include an interface (2054) to one or more communication networks (2055). Networks can for example be wireless, wireline, optical. Networks can further be local, wide-area, metropolitan, vehicular and industrial, real-time, delay-tolerant, and so on. Examples of networks include local area networks such as Ethernet, wireless LANs, cellular networks to include GSM, 3G, 4G, 5G, LTE and the like, TV wireline or wireless wide area digital networks to include cable TV, satellite TV, and terrestrial broadcast TV, vehicular and industrial to include CAN bus, and so forth. Certain networks commonly require external network interface adapters that attached to certain general-purpose data ports or peripheral buses (2049) (such as, for example USB ports of the computer system (2000)); others are commonly integrated into the core of the computer system (2000) by attachment to a system bus as described below (for example Ethernet interface into a PC computer system or cellular network interface into a smartphone computer system). Using any of these networks, computer system (2000) can communicate with other entities. Such communication can be uni-directional, receive only (for example, broadcast TV), uni-directional send-only (for example CANbus to certain CANbus devices), or bi-directional, for example to other computer systems using local or wide area digital networks. Certain protocols and protocol stacks can be used on each of those networks and network interfaces as described above.

Aforementioned human interface devices, human-accessible storage devices, and network interfaces can be attached to a core (2040) of the computer system (2000).

The core (2040) can include one or more Central Processing Units (CPU) (2041), Graphics Processing Units (GPU) (2042), specialized programmable processing units in the form of Field Programmable Gate Areas (FPGA) (2043), hardware accelerators for certain tasks (2044), graphics adapters (2050), and so forth. These devices, along with Read-only memory (ROM) (2045), Random-access memory (2046), internal mass storage such as internal non-user accessible hard drives, SSDs, and the like (2047), may be connected through a system bus (2048). In some computer systems, the system bus (2048) can be accessible in the form of one or more physical plugs to enable extensions by additional CPUs, GPU, and the like. The peripheral devices can be attached either directly to the core's system bus (2048), or through a peripheral bus (2049). In an example, the screen (2010) can be connected to the graphics adapter (2050). Architectures for a peripheral bus include PCI, USB, and the like.

CPUs (2041), GPUs (2042), FPGAs (2043), and accelerators (2044) can execute certain instructions that, in combination, can make up the aforementioned computer code. That computer code can be stored in ROM (2045) or RAM (2046). Transitional data can also be stored in RAM (2046), whereas permanent data can be stored for example, in the internal mass storage (2047). Fast storage and retrieve to any of the memory devices can be enabled through the use of cache memory, that can be closely associated with one or more CPU (2041), GPU (2042), mass storage (2047), ROM (2045), RAM (2046), and the like.

The computer readable media can have computer code thereon for performing various computer-implemented operations. The media and computer code can be those specially designed and constructed for the purposes of the present disclosure, or they can be of the kind well known and available to those having skill in the computer software arts.

As a non-limiting example, the computer system having architecture (2000), and specifically the core (2040) can provide functionality as a result of processor(s) (including CPUs, GPUs, FPGA, accelerators, and the like) executing software embodied in one or more tangible, computer-readable media. Such computer-readable media can be media associated with user-accessible mass storage as introduced above, as well as certain storage of the core (2040) that are of non-transitory nature, such as core-internal mass storage (2047) or ROM (2045). The software implementing various embodiments of the present disclosure can be stored in such devices and executed by core (2040). A computer-readable medium can include one or more memory devices or chips, according to particular needs. The software can cause the core (2040) and specifically the processors therein (including CPU, GPU, FPGA, and the like) to execute particular processes or particular parts of particular processes described herein, including defining data structures stored in RAM (2046) and modifying such data structures according to the processes defined by the software. In addition, or as an alternative, the computer system can provide functionality as a result of logic hardwired or otherwise embodied in a circuit (for example: accelerator (2044)), which can operate in place of or together with software to execute particular processes or particular parts of particular processes described herein. Reference to software can encompass logic, and vice versa, where appropriate. Reference to a computer-readable media can encompass a circuit (such as an integrated circuit (IC)) storing software for execution, a circuit embodying logic for execution, or both, where appropriate. The present disclosure encompasses any suitable combination of hardware and software.

While the particular invention has been described with reference to illustrative embodiments, this description is not meant to be limiting. Various modifications of the illustrative embodiments and additional embodiments of the invention will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art from this description. Those skilled in the art will readily recognize that these and various other modifications can be made to the exemplary embodiments, illustrated and described herein, without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. It is therefore contemplated that the appended claims will cover any such modifications and alternate embodiments. Certain proportions within the illustrations may be exaggerated, while other proportions may be minimized. Accordingly, the disclosure and the figures are to be regarded as illustrative rather than restrictive.

Below is a list of acronyms, some of which may appear in the present disclosure:JEM: joint exploration modelVVC: versatile video codingBMS: benchmark setMV: Motion VectorHEVC: High Efficiency Video CodingSEI: Supplementary Enhancement InformationVUI: Video Usability InformationGOPs: Groups of PicturesTUs: Transform Units,PUs: Prediction UnitsCTUs: Coding Tree UnitsCTBs: Coding Tree BlocksPBs: Prediction BlocksHRD: Hypothetical Reference DecoderSNR: Signal Noise RatioCPUs: Central Processing UnitsGPUs: Graphics Processing UnitsCRT: Cathode Ray TubeLCD: Liquid-Crystal DisplayOLED: Organic Light-Emitting DiodeCD: Compact DiscDVD: Digital Video DiscROM: Read-Only MemoryRAM: Random Access MemoryASIC: Application-Specific Integrated CircuitPLD: Programmable Logic DeviceLAN: Local Area NetworkGSM: Global System for Mobile communicationsLTE: Long-Term EvolutionCANBus: Controller Area Network BusUSB: Universal Serial BusPCI: Peripheral Component InterconnectFPGA: Field Programmable Gate AreasSSD: solid-state driveIC: Integrated CircuitHDR: high dynamic rangeSDR: standard dynamic rangeJVET: Joint Video Exploration TeamMPM: most probable modeWAIP: Wide-Angle Intra PredictionCU: Coding UnitPU: Prediction UnitTU: Transform UnitCTU: Coding Tree UnitPDPC: Position Dependent Prediction CombinationISP: Intra Sub-PartitionsSPS: Sequence Parameter SettingPPS: Picture Parameter SetAPS: Adaptation Parameter SetVPS: Video Parameter SetDPS: Decoding Parameter SetALF: Adaptive Loop FilterSAO: Sample Adaptive OffsetCC-ALF: Cross-Component Adaptive Loop FilterCDEF: Constrained Directional Enhancement FilterCCSO: Cross-Component Sample OffsetLSO: Local Sample OffsetLR: Loop Restoration FilterAV1: AOMedia Video 1AV2: AOMedia Video 2MVD: Motion Vector differenceCfL: Chroma from LumaSDT: Semi Decoupled TreeSDP: Semi Decoupled PartitioningSST: Semi Separate TreeSB: Super BlockIBC (or IntraBC): Intra Block CopyCDF: Cumulative Density FunctionSCC: Screen Content CodingGBI: Generalized Bi-predictionBCW: Bi-prediction with CU-level WeightsCIIP: Combined intra-inter predictionPOC: Picture Order CountRPS: Reference Picture SetDPB: Decoded Picture BufferMMVD: Merge Mode with Motion Vector Difference.