The video subgroup and the joint video team of VCEG and MPEG members intensely discussed issues related to the ongoing development of AVC amendments and the corrigendum work related to the fifth edition. The most relevant work items in this context were
Issuing FDAM1 of 5th edition (Constrained Baseline, Stereo High Profile, frame packing arrangement SEI): The modifications proposed in the previous study document were adopted by request of national bodies. The new Stereo High Profile, which restricts MVC to 2 views but includes support of interlaced coding tools, was strongly supported by several national bodies. As this is only a new combination of existing tools, it was considered not unusual to include this at the final amendment stage of the approval process. As a stable software implementation exists, there is additional confirmation of the lack of substantial technical risk in doing so. Further, performance gains were reported for the constellation of this new profile, showing 20-30% average benefit in terms of bit rate reduction (as tested) for the bit rate used for coding the dependent view, with the amount of gain depending on the test set and the camera baseline distance, for progressive sequences. For the interlace cases tested, the gain was a bit lower (15% average), but this was for IBBP, where the gain is generally lower than in the Hierarchical B coding case that was used for progressive stereo testing (and the software for the interlaced case may be somewhat generally less mature).
Issuing DCOR1 of 5th edition. This includes a number of corrigendum items related to MVC, SVC and older AVC parts contained in edition 5. A high level of clarification was achieved on a number of critical issues, for which the joint discussion with VCEG members was fruitful. One important new corrigendum item is the removal of the mandatory prefix NAL unit for the MVC base view, which guarantees better compatibility with existing AVC encoder and decoder devices and reduces the complexity of the system-level support requirements by avoiding any potential need for special handing of this NAL unit. Due to the need of improving the editorial maturity combined with the goal to target a 6th edition by the time when the corrigendum will be finished, it is not possible to produce the DCOR in time for a ballot period that ends before or during the October meeting. It is therefore suggested to target the COR1 for January 2010.
As requested by the ballot responses, the reference software and conformance testing specifications related to the Stereo High Profile will be included in the ongoing MVC reference software and conformance testing amendments, which had both been previously scheduled reached FDAM status at the London meeting. To accomplish the inclusion of support for the additional profile and to provide an opportunity to further clarify the possibility of integrating the JM and JMVC code bases, it was suggested to delay the FDAM stage for both of these amendments by one meeting cycle. New Study texts were issued on both software and comformance FPDAM texts.
Documents reviewed:
m16503
Ad Hoc Group on AVC Development
Gary Sullivan, Jens-Rainer Ohm
m16538
Summary of Voting on ISO/IEC 14496-4:2004/FPDAM 38
SC 29 Secretariat
m16539
Summary of Voting on ISO/IEC 14496-5:2001/FPDAM 15
SC 29 Secretariat
m16551
Summary of Voting on ISO/IEC 14496-10:200X/FPDAM 1
