High Dynamic Range Video Coding with Backward Compatibility

This paper presents a method for efficient compression of high dynamic range (HDR) and wide color gamut (WCG) video data. The proposed solution consists of two major elements: a conventional video codec (e.g., HEVC) and pre-and post-processing steps applied prior to encoding and after decoding process, respectively. The proposed HDR/WCG video coding system can be configured to provide two configurations: (1) a non-backward compatible bitstream with improved HDR video quality and (2) a SDR backward compatible bitstream with balanced visual quality between the reconstructed signal by the SDR and the HDR receivers. The simulations conducted under the MPEG Common Test Conditions for HDR demonstrate that the compression efficiency of the proposed solution outperforms the anchor solution on objective metrics. Additionally, subjective evaluations conducted under MPEG revealed improved visual quality for the proposed method.