Patent ID: 7711052

Claim:
A method of operating an apparatus for encoding a video signal to form an encoded video signal, the video signal representing a sequence of pictures, the method comprising: obtaining a local default reference picture by encoding and decoding a picture of the sequence; forming a motion compensated prediction for a current picture of the sequence or a part of a current picture from the local default reference picture; generating an indicator for use in error concealment of the current picture or respectively for said part of a current picture, the indicator configured to identify an alternative reference picture, which is sufficiently similar to the local default reference picture so that it can be used in a corresponding decoding process, instead of a corresponding default reference picture, in forming a motion compensated prediction for the current picture or respectively for said part of a current picture when the corresponding default reference picture cannot be reconstructed in the corresponding decoding process; and providing the indicator for use in the corresponding decoding process to identify the alternative reference picture for use in error concealment.