International organisation for standardisation organisation internationale de normalisation

4.5Administrative documents

4.5.1.1.1JVT-Y000 (Admin) List of documents of Geneva meeting

As listed herein.

4.5.1.1.2JVT-Y001-M (Admin) [G. J. Sullivan, J.-R. Ohm, A. Luthra, T. Wiegand] AHG Report: Proj mgmt and errata

General project status was reported verbally as described above (see opening remarks).
A new version of the meeting report of the Geneva meeting was available on 21st.
On errata – the JVT-X210 output of the previous meeting was produced and made available during the current meeting.
One input on errata consisted of JVT-Y083 on bitstream concatenation issues.

4.5.1.1.3JVT-Y002 (Admin) [T. Wiegand, K. Suehring, A. Tourapis, T. Suzuki, K.P. Lim] AHG Report: JM text, ref soft, bitstream, conf

This document described the activities of the JM text, reference software and bitstream conformance Adhoc-Group since the last JVT meeting.
On JM Reference Text: There was no activity to report on the JM reference text.
On JM reference software: Updates for 4:4:4 common mode and lossless coding have been integrated into the development branch. The latest code submissions are currently being tested and were released in JM 13.0 during the Shenzhen JVT meeting.
JM 12.4 had been released as a bug fix release of JM 12.3.

JM 13.0 was released during the Shenzhen JVT meeting.

The following issues were reported to be the most important (volunteers needed):
As the official H.264/AVC reference software, the JM should be a correct source for checking implementations. This means the decoder should be able to decode all valid H.264/AVC bitstreams and the encoder should never create invalid bitstreams. This is currently not the case.
Depending on the configuration the JM encoder can create invalid bitstreams:

• 
  Level constraints are not properly checked
  
• 
  The 16-bit transform requirement is not checked
  
• 
  In Baseline/Main/Extended profile the restriction of CAVLC syntax elements needs proper handling
  

The software coordinators would like to encourage all H.264/AVC experts to volunteer for fixing these issues.

Known Issues / Reporting bugs: A web based bug tracking system has been set up for keeping track of known issues and missing features. The system is publicly accessible but requires registration for entering bug reports.
The system is located at http://ipbt.hhi.de.
This internet site contains also some usage instructions.
Please note that the bug tracking system is using encrypted/secure http (https) for protecting the user’s login. The used certificate is self signed and has to be imported into the user’s web browser. The SHA-1 fingerprint of the certificate is 69:21:86:d9:3e:72:da:3f:e8:30:df:a8:dd:fa:a5:4c:ed:85:b5:09.
A list of known issues and their state can be found at: https://ipbt.hhi.de/mantis/view_all_bug_page.php.
A list of current bugs can also be found in the annex of the AHG report document.
It was requested that certain rules should be followed before reporting any new bugs:

• 
  The database should be searched on whether the same issue was previously reported. If the problem was reported before, but there is additional information, then this information should be added to the original report.
  
• 
  It should be specified if the problem is related to the encoder, decoder or both.
  
• 
  The version of the software used should be specified.
  
• 
  Description of the problem should be as precise as possible.
  
• 
  The necessary steps to reproduce the problem should be described in detail.
  
• 
  If available, the configuration files or/and command line syntax used to run the software should be provided.
  
• 
  The language of the standard should be used when referencing the text description.
  
• 
  After filing the report, the user should check if he/she is requested to provide additional or other information relating to this issue.
  

Bitstream Exchange Activities: Communications related to bitstream exchange activity have taken place on the bitstream exchange reflector (“[e-mail]”). The reflector of this AHG was moved from IMTC to Univ. of Aachen. However this area was not so active since the last JVT meeting.

The FTP area for downloading bitstream files is on the main JVT Experts FTP site:

ftp://ftp3.itu.int/jvt-site/bitstream_exchange/

The bitstreams can alternatively be accessed from the following http site.

http://ftp3.itu.int/av-arch/jvt-site/bitstream_exchange/

To volunteer a bitstream for testing, please include it in a zip archive along with related files (trace files, configuration, reconstructed frames) in a zip archive and upload it to the dropbox:

ftp://ftp3.itu.int/jvt-site/dropbox

In general, the following naming convention is being followed for the bitstreams in the exchange:

FeatureCode_Source_VersionLetter

Please refer to the spreadsheet and files on the FTP site for examples.
Once a bitstream is uploaded to the dropbox, send an e-mail to [e-mail], and/or the bitstream exchange reflector and it will be made available in the bitstream_exchange directory.
To sign up for the bitstream exchange reflector, use the web address given below.

http://mailman.rwth-aachen.de/mailman/listinfo/jvt-bitstream.

No new bitstreams for non-professional profiles had been exchanged since the last meeting.
Conformance bitstreams for professional profiles: New conformance bitstreams for High 10 intra, High 422 intra, High 444 intra, CAVLC 444 intra, High 444 profile were generated and available at JVT ftp site. Remaining bitstreams are the bitstreams for lossless coding. Since the implementation of lossless coding in JM software has been finished, the bitstreams will be generated soon. The verification of conformance bitstreams is on going.
The AHG recommended

• 
  To continue to collect more conformance bitstreams
  
• 
  To promote professional profile conformance and reference software to FPDAM at this meeting
  

On conformance activity (incl. prof prof) – software implementation has now implemented all features – last version released was 12.4 – new version to be released during this meeting. Bitstreams being collected – effort progressing well.

No new problem reports on conformance issues for other (non-SVC) profiles.

4.5.1.1.4JVT-Y003 (Admin) [H. Schwarz, J. Vieron, T. Wiegand, M. Wien, A. Eleftheriadis, V. Bottreau] AHG Report: JD & JSVM text, S/W, conf

This document presented the report of the AhG on JD & JSVM text, JSVM software, and conformance.
The text for the SVC Amendment was provided in JVT-X201. The document JVT-X201 includes changes that are related to issues encountered and resolved by the editors in the final SVC amendment editing process, including the consideration of ITU-T "Last Call" comments.
A list of issues encountered and resolved by the editors in the final SVC amendment editing process was provided, including consideration of ITU-T “last call” comments that could conceivably be considered to be other than simple clarifications and corrections of completely obvious errors.
The editors were thanked and congratulated on doing an excellent job of the editing work.
There was some discussion regarding the specified extraction process in relation to filler data and SEI data; and the relationship between the HRD parameters in the AVC base layer SPS relative to those in an SVC VUI structure. This aspect was checked and finalized during the meeting.
At the San Jose Meeting the JSVM software was branched-off. One branch was created with the goal to align the software with the JD text. A second was created for implementing tools that are considered for SVC phase 2.
The goal of the current JSVM integration period was to obtain JD-aligned software. The work was going on since there were 3 remaining integration works to be performed. Note that multiple slices had been integrated in the software. A table was provided to show the current status of the JSVM 10 software integration process. Remaining items included

• 
  IntraBL treated as inter for constrained intra pred (JVT-W090); Intra MBs in base layer not exceeding IntraBL by more than 1.5 ( JVT- W090); Inheritance of deblocking control (JVT-W046); MBs required for picture only for QID = 0 (JVT-W052). Various HL syntax issues (see notes on JVT-W125); Profile changes as recorded in profiles section; … – to be done by editors.
  
• 
  deblocking JVT-W063r1 (to be done by Polycom),
  
• 
  change to scaling in position calc for large pictures (see notes on JVT-W136 of prior meeting – to be done by Microsoft), and
  
• 
  rate control JVT-W043 to be done by Dolby.
  

On SVC phase 2 software, nothing was reportedly integrated during the current integration period, as two proponents had decided not to implement their tools.

In order to keep track of the changes in software development and to always provide an up-to-date version of the JSVM software, a CVS server for the JSVM software has been set up at the Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule (RWTH) Aachen. The CVS server can be accessed using WinCVS or any other CVS client. The server is configured to allow read access only using the parameters specified in the table below. Write access to the JSVM software server is restricted to the JSVM software coordinators group.

authentication:	pserver
host address:	garcon.ient.rwth-aachen.de
path:	/cvs/jvt
user name:	jvtuser
password:	jvt.Amd.2
module name:	jsvm or jsvm_red

Examples of how to access the CVS repository were provided in the AHG report document.

The CVS repository includes a JSVM software manual, which provides further information on the JSVM software.
Text of ISO/IEC 14496-4:2004/PDAM 31 "Conformance Testing for SVC Profiles" is available on the WG11 site as N9192. Its twin text has been provided as input document JVT-Y020 to the Shenzhen JVT meeting.
Text of ISO/IEC 14496-4:2004/PDAM 31 (JVT-Y020) includes the specification of 82 SVC Conformance bit streams for Scalable Baseline, Scalable High and Scalable High Intra profiles:

• 
  Scalable Baseline profile: 61 bit streams among which the following use cases are illustrated :
  

• 
  MGS: 6
  
• 
  MGS + Temporal: 14
  
• 
  Spatial: 14
  
• 
  Spatial + Temporal: 20
  
• 
  MGS + Spatial + Temporal: 3
  
• 
  CGS + Spatial + Temporal: 3
  
• 
  Spatial + Temporal + CGS: 1
  

• 
  Scalable High profile : 17 bit streams among which the following use cases are illustrated:
  

• 
  MGS: 4
  
• 
  Spatial: 3
  
• 
  Spatial + Temporal: 6
  
• 
  MGS + Temporal + Spatial: 2
  
• 
  CGS + Temporal + Spatial: 1
  
• 
  Spatial + Temporal + CGS: 1
  

• 
  Scalable High Intra profile : 4 bit streams among which the following use cases are illustrated:
  

• 
  Spatial: 3
  
• 
  CGS + Spatial: 1
  

The AHG recommended to

• 
  Identify and correct problems in SVC Conformance specification
  
• 
  Add new bit stream descriptions for use cases not or insufficiently covered
  
• 
  Establish a work plan and collect associated bitstreams for inclusion in SVC Conformance specification
  

4.5.1.1.5JVT-Y004 (Admin) [Y. Gao, A. Segall, T. Wiegand] AHG Report: SVC bit depth and chroma format

This AhG was established at the Geneva meeting to study bit-depth and chroma format scalability. The mandates of the AhG were:

• 
  Identify applications
  
• 
  Work out suggestions for detailed needs
  
• 
  Find/create test material
  
• 
  Study bit-depth reduction techniques, e.g., tone-mapping tools
  
• 
  Study color space and/or gamma conversion requirements
  
• 
  Study combined spatial and bit depth scalability
  
• 
  Define experiments and test conditions
  
• 
  Investigate software and text modification needs
  
• 
  Identify complexity issues
  

The AhG sent a kick-off message to the JVT main reflector ([e-mail]) on August 15, 2007. There were three other messages on the reflector. All messages contained [BDS] in the subject line.

It was suggested to send liaison letters to the Blu-ray Disc Association and the DVD Forum "to study the possibilities for adding these formats to what can go on those physical discs or their networked upgraded (persistent storage)." This was proposed by Tom McMahon (Broadcom) and supported by Andrew Segall (Sharp).
The following related documents were reported to have been registered: JVT-Y032, JVT-Y039, JVT-Y048, JVT-Y049, JVT-Y050, JVT-Y056, JVT-Y057, JVT-Y067, JVT-Y071, JVT-Y072, JVT-Y073, JVT-Y078, JVT-Y080, JVT-Y081.
The AhG recommended

• 
  To review related contributions during the meeting
  
• 
  To continue the study of bit-depth and chroma format scalability
  
• 
  To continue evaluating test material
  
• 
  To send liaison letters to the Blu-ray Disc Association and DVD Forum as proposed on the reflector
  

Liaison activity suggested.

4.5.1.1.6JVT-Y005 (Admin) [J. Ridge, M. Karczewicz] AHG Report: FGS applications and design simplification

In the Geneva meeting, the JVT created a FGS applications and design simplification AHG activity with the following mandates:

• 
  Identify applications for that may require FGS functionality and their characteristics
  
• 
  Determine to what extent new coding tools are needed to achieve the functionality
  
• 
  Define experiments and test conditions relating to FGS technology
  
• 
  Explore simplification of FGS tool design
  

One input contribution to this meeting was noted to be closely related to the AHG work items: JVT-Y075 [M. Karczewicz, R. Ranchal. Y. Ye (Qualcomm)] SVC FGS Simplifications.

The AhG recommended

• 
  To continue the study of FGS Applications and Design Simplification
  
• 
  To review the related contributions
  

4.5.1.1.7JVT-Y006 (Admin) [A. Vetro, P. Pandit] AHG Report: MVC high-level syntax & buffer management

At the Geneva meeting, the JVT established the AhG on MVC high-level syntax & buffering with the following mandates:

• 
  Discuss high-level syntax for MVC including NAL unit type, NAL unit header extension, SPS extensions, slice layer and integration with SVC syntax.
  
• 
  Discuss reference picture management to enable simultaneous picture output of different views and to facilitate parallel processing.
  
• 
  Discuss issues related to HRD.
  
• 
  Propose refined syntax and decoding processes for JMVM.
  

No email was exchanged on this topic on the reflector. Editors have made several improvements to the JD text related to high level syntax.

The AhG on MVC high-level syntax & buffering recommended discussing the issues mentioned above and making any necessary revisions to the MVC text.

4.5.1.1.8JVT-Y007 (Admin) [H. Kimata, A. Smolic, P. Pandit, A. Vetro, Y. Chen] AHG Report: JMVM & JD text & software

At the Geneva meeting, the JVT established the AHG on MVC JD and JMVM text and software with the following mandates:

• 
  Collect comments on draft, perform necessary editing and delivery.
  
• 
  Maintain JMVM and JD document and collect comments on the text.
  
• 
  Coordinate JMVM software integration
  
• 
  Coordinate bug-fixing process for the JMVM software
  
• 
  Maintain JMVM software manual
  

The JMVM5 and JD4 were submitted to JVT as JVT-X207 and JVT-X209, respectively. The JD text was also submitted to MPEG as PDAM text.

Key changes made to the JD text included:

• 
  Revised definition of V-IDR and idr_flag (JVT-X029)
  
• 
  Clarified concept of IDR access unit (JVT-X085)
  
• 
  Bug fix for parallel decoding information SEI (JVT-X058)
  
• 
  Clarified that there is a single base view (JVT-X025)
  
• 
  Revised syntax of prefix NAL unit (adds svc_mvc_flag)
  
• 
  Better alignment with the latest SVC specification (e.g., considering latest definition of NAL unit types and subset sequence parameter set syntax)
  
• 
  Clarified that view dependency of anchor shall apply to V-IDR pictures and IDR access unit in general; revised definition of V-IDR to clarify that V-IDR is an anchor picture
  
• 
  Revision of terms such as reference picture list and additional definitions
  
• 
  The following points were also discussed among the editor’s, but no action was taken:
  
• 
  Considered adding informative notes on relation between IDR, V-IDR and anchor picture based on some suggestions at the previous meeting (basically, V-IDR corresponds to a closed GOP, while anchor allows for open GOP). However, the editor’s felt that the definitions are sufficiently clear, therefore no such notes were added.
  
• 
  Discussed definition of primary coded picture and detection of first VCL NAL unit. This term and process is clear from the base specification.
  
• 
  Considered whether SP (H.3.17 reference picture list, and H.8.2 Decoding process for reference picture lists construction), EP, EB (H.3.4 EB slice, H.3.5 EP slice, and H.8.2 Decoding process for reference picture lists construction) slices should be included as part of MVC spec or not. This should be discussed further at the meting.
  
• 
  Discussed empty sections of HRD. In particular, bitstream and decoder conformance for MVC still needs to be addressed.
  

The JMVM 5 software was delivered to the group on August 10th, 2007. This release contained the integration of scalable nesting SEI message, active view info SEI message, view scalability info SEI, bitstream extractor application based on view scalability SEI message, multiview scene info SEI, multiview acquisition info SEI and several bug fixing and software improvement.

Some software issues that still need to be addressed are:

• 
  Fix software for compile errors for gcc 3.4+ version
  
• 
  Remove all compilation warnings
  
• 
  Output order of views is not sequential or parallel. It is on an as ready basis.
  
• 
  All the macros need to be cleaned up & removed permanently along with commented code related to SVC
  
• 
  Prepare validation scripts (work in progress)
  
• 
  Provide support GOPsize=1 (with motion skip & IC)
  
• 
  Trace file support for arbitrary view_id assignments
  

The AhG on JMVM and JD text editing recommended:

• 
  To consider editor’s input in preparing future versions of the JMVM and JD.
  
• 
  To discuss the issues in the current version of the software as mentioned above
  
• 
  To improve the manual created for the JMVM software
  
• 
  To follow the same software integration guidelines present in JSVM (repeated below)
  

Software integration guidelines and rules

In order to improve the whole software integration process, the software integration guidelines and rules are as following:

• 
  The integrated software shall compile without warnings when using the provided VC6 and, VS .NET workspaces, as well as linux makefiles.
  
• 
  Do not use variable declarations inside the header of for-loops (the scope for for-loops is not correctly supported with all compilers).
  
• 
  Follow the coding style of the JMVM software. Use 2 (two) spaces for indentation, no tabs.
  
• 
  Re-use code and integrate functionality as possible. Try to avoid redundant code.
  
• 
  Do not change the meaning of existing input parameters but define new ones if necessary (and applicable).
  
• 
  Make sure that new parameters have meaningful default values. Tools should not be switched on by default (if not decided different by the JVT).
  
• 
  Do not re-structure the output of the compiled binaries (if not decided different by the JVT).
  
• 
  Please change the JMVM version number macro (i.e. “_JMVM_VERSION_”) located in the file “CommonDefs.h” to be inline with your integration tag.
  

CVS tag information is as follows:

[CVS] host address: garcon.ient.rwth-aachen.de

user name: jvtuser password: jvt.Amd.2

authentication: pserver path: /cvs/jvt module name: jmvm or jmvm_red
jmvm_red does not check out certain old folders related to SVC.

4.5.1.1.9JVT-Y008 (Admin) [H. Kimata, A. Smolic] AHG Report: MVC exper. framework & test cond

At the Geneva meeting, the JVT established the AHG on MVC experimental framework and testing conditions with the following mandates:

• 
  To evaluate application needs in MVC framework.
  
• 
  To discuss testing conditions to evaluate specific application needs.
  
• 
  To consider needs for new tools to be evaluated.
  

The AHG noted that there was one related MPEG contribution M14876 from the USNB of WG 11, which suggests start of a new direction to support Panorama video, suggests that a high-quality reference depth map estimation technique be made available, and discusses the relation between MVC to MPEG FTV activities.

The AHG recommended discussing the relation of MVC to MPEG FTV, and new direction to support Panorama video, and depth map estimation techniques.

4.5.1.1.10JVT-Y009-M (Admin) [P. Pandit] AHG Report: MVC solutions using existing AVC decoders

At the Geneva meeting, the JVT established the AHG on MVC solutions using existing AVC decoders, with the following mandates:

• 
  Collect comments on methods for enabling AVC decoding of multiview video (spatial/temporal/others)
  
• 
  Study the complexity of such methods
  
• 
  Investigate the applications enabled
  
• 
  Study compatibility of MVC solutions with existing AVC profiles & levels
  

At this meeting, no AHG report document was filed and it was noted that there were no contributions on this topic. It was therefore suggested not to create a similar AHG for the subsequent period.

4.5.1.1.11JVT-Y010 (Admin) [P. Pandit, H. Kimata] AHG Report: MVC RRU and mixed-resolution view coding

At the Geneva meeting, the JVT established the AHG on MVC RRU and mixed-resolution view coding with the following mandates:

• 
  Investigate approaches for enhancing MVC coding efficiency using spatial downsampling
  
• 
  Evaluate the complexity of such methods
  
• 
  Investigate the relationship between downsampling approaches and view interpolation
  
• 
  Evaluate subjective quality associated with methods
  

The following contributions to this meeting were suggested to be relevant to this topic: JVT-Y030, JVT-Y052, JVT-Y054, JVT-Y082.

The AHG recommended to review the related contributions during the meeting.

4.5.1.1.12JVT-Y011 (Admin) [P. Pandit, H. S. Koo] AHG Report: MVC JMVM coding tools

The JMVM coding tools AhG was created at the Geneva meeting in July, 2007 with the following mandates.

• 
  Investigate simplification and improvement of current JMVM coding tools (IC and motion skip)
  
• 
  Clarify issues related to motion skip mode:
  
• 
  Improve motion skip mode by adaptive reference view selection for motion skip
  
• 
  Describe motion skip for multiple inter-view reference pictures (consider both anchor and/or non-anchor pictures)
  
• 
  Conduct a fair comparison of motion skip by disabling motion skip for non-anchor pictures based in inter-view dependencies indicated in SPS
  
• 
  Study IC for motion skip mode using sequences containing temporal illumination changes (e.g., KDDI data from original call for evidence)
  
• 
  Investigate techniques for single loop decoding to reduce complexity starting with motion skip
  

A few emails about testing conditions for multiple inter-view reference pictures were exchanged over the reflector.

The following contributions relevant to this topic were identified in the AHG report: JVT-Y033, JVT-Y036, JVT-Y037, JVT-Y038, JVT-Y042, JVT-Y044, JVT-Y053, JVT-Y054, JVT-Y058, JVT-Y059, JVT-Y060.
The AHG recommended to discuss and evaluate the contributions related to the AhG.