Patent ID: 8432968

Claim:
A method of encoding video data according to a bitdepth-based scalable video coding (SVC) scheme, the method comprising: generating a base layer and an enhancement layer associated with the video data, wherein the base layer defines the video data with bitdepths of M bits and the enhancement layer defines an enhancement of the bitdepths to N bits, wherein N is larger than M; and encoding the base layer and the enhancement layer, wherein encoding the enhancement layer includes: determining whether an N-bit enhancement layer video block should be coded based on the base layer using inter-layer prediction, and upon determining that the N-bit enhancement layer video block should be coded based on the base layer using inter-layer prediction: determining whether the N-bit enhancement layer video block corresponds to an intra base layer block or an inter base layer block; if the N-bit enhancement layer video block corresponds to an intra base layer block, coding the N-bit enhancement layer video block according to a first inter-layer predictive coding technique, wherein the first inter-layer predictive coding technique includes generating a residual video block as a difference between the N-bit enhancement layer video block and an upsampled N-bit version of a corresponding reconstructed M-bit base layer video block; and if the N-bit enhancement layer video block corresponds to an inter base layer block, selecting between the first inter-layer predictive coding technique and a second inter-layer predictive coding technique, wherein the second inter-layer predictive coding technique includes generating the residual video block as a difference between the N-bit enhancement layer video block and an N-bit prediction block that is identified by a motion vector associated with a corresponding M-bit base layer video block.