A meeting of the Joint Collaborative Team on Video Coding (JCT-VC) was held under WG11 auspices. The video subgroup approved the production of Test Model (N12185) and Working Draft (N12186) outputs jointly with the JCT-VC.
The Video and Requirements subgroups held a meeting session with JCT-VC and discussed the following subjects relevant to the work on HEVC:
Extension of HEVC towards scalability and 3D stereo/multiview video coding: It was generally agreed that substantial support for these capabilities should be provided in near-term extensions to the initial version of HEVC. An initial requirements study had been performed (under Requirements SG, M21100). It is suggested to consider up to 3 phases of scalable coding development, with the first phase concentrating on 4:2:0 video, simple cases of temporal/spatial/SNR scalability. Stereo/multiview scalability could also be considered, but it appears appropriate to wait for the outcome of the 3DV CfP, which could include responses related to HEVC, and plan any appropriate action afterwards. A potential CfP could be issued in 2012, and preparation of an internal draft could be started in December. This would require coordination between the parent bodies of the JCT-VC, and an appropriate liaison to VCEG was sent. Until after responses to the CfP (assuming this will happen in a timely fashion), it would be useful to consider related issues of H-L syntax, ref pic list management, temporal ID, view ID, quality ID, definitions of what subset of the bitstream those apply to, reserved extension bits, but no scalability-specific coding tools – e.g., specification of upsampling filters for spatial scalability.
Interlaced coding: Two input documents (M20613 and M21411) were related to the possibility of interlaced video coding support in HEVC. It was in principle agreed that this might be appropriate if no coding changes below picture/field level are incurred, possibly including chroma MV alignment. In principle, this could essentially be supported by SEI messages or VUI or other such high-level signalling. The requirements document does not prohibit consideration of interlaced video, but there is consensus that this should not become something that complicates the design.
Document(s) reviewed:
m21100
Requirements for scalable enhancement of HEVC
Ajay Luthra
m21322
Finnish NB comment on extensions to HEVC
The suggestions of the FNB (Requirements must be fully clear and justified; core codec performance should not be diminished; timeline should be carefully considered; extension to be done in JCT-VC) are fully supported.
Justin Ridge
m20613
Proposal on the support of interlace format in HEVC
