Enhanced Compression beyond HEVC for Next Generation Content

The Joint Video Experts Team recently evaluated technology in response to a Call for Proposals for Video Compression with Capability beyond HEVC. A number of proposed solutions were evaluated, with a sub-set demonstrating the potential to reduce bit-rates by over 40% compared to HEVC. This paper presents the author's contributions to one of these proposals. The proposal emphasized a flexible, rectangular partitioning structure that was combined with new coding tools, including improved motion vector coding and quantization signaling methods. Results show the efficacy of the approach. Using the evaluation procedure defined in the Call, the described approach provides coding gains relative to an HEVC anchor of 41.2% and 35.7% for 4K-SDR and HD-SDR sequences, respectively, using the random access configuration; 29.0% for HD-SDR sequences using a low delay configuration, and gains of 34.3% and 32.2% for PQ-HDR and HLG-HDR sequences, respectively, using a random access configuration.