Patent ID: 8014450

Claim:
A computer-implemented method of encoding video with a video encoder, the method comprising: with the video encoder, encoding video that includes one or more pictures, each of the one or more pictures including luma samples and chroma samples, wherein range reduction of the luma samples and range reduction of the chroma samples, if performed, occur outside of a motion compensation loon; and outputting, from the video encoder, the encoded video in a bit stream according to a bit stream syntax, including: signaling a first set of one or more syntax elements for the range reduction of the luma samples of the one or more pictures of the video, wherein the first set of one or more syntax elements indicates whether the luma samples were mapped from an original luma sample range to a reduced luma sample range prior to subsequent encoding of the luma samples in the reduced luma sample range; and signaling a second set of one or more syntax elements for the range reduction of the chroma samples of the one or more pictures of the video, wherein the second set of one or more syntax elements indicates whether the chroma samples were mapped from an original chroma sample range to a reduced chroma sample range prior to subsequent encoding of the chroma samples in the reduced chroma sample range, and wherein the first set of one or more syntax elements is signaled separately from the second set of one or more syntax elements; wherein the bit stream syntax permits selective use of the range reduction of the luma samples but not the range reduction of the chroma samples; wherein the bit stream syntax permits selective use of the range reduction of the chroma samples but not the range reduction of the luma samples; and wherein the bit stream syntax permits use of different scaling factors between the range reduction of the luma samples and the range reduction of the chroma samples.