WO2019073113A1 - Appareil, procédé et programme informatique pour le codage et le décodage de vidéo - Google Patents

Appareil, procédé et programme informatique pour le codage et le décodage de vidéo Download PDF

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Publication number
WO2019073113A1
WO2019073113A1 PCT/FI2018/050713 FI2018050713W WO2019073113A1 WO 2019073113 A1 WO2019073113 A1 WO 2019073113A1 FI 2018050713 W FI2018050713 W FI 2018050713W WO 2019073113 A1 WO2019073113 A1 WO 2019073113A1
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Prior art keywords
picture
coded
bitstream
constituent
tiles
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PCT/FI2018/050713
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English (en)
Inventor
Alireza Aminlou
Miska Hannuksela
Ramin GHAZNAVI YOUVALARI
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Nokia Technologies Oy
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Publication of WO2019073113A1 publication Critical patent/WO2019073113A1/fr

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Classifications

    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
    • H04N21/00—Selective content distribution, e.g. interactive television or video on demand [VOD]
    • H04N21/80—Generation or processing of content or additional data by content creator independently of the distribution process; Content per se
    • H04N21/81—Monomedia components thereof
    • H04N21/816—Monomedia components thereof involving special video data, e.g 3D video
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
    • H04N19/00—Methods or arrangements for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals
    • H04N19/10—Methods or arrangements for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals using adaptive coding
    • H04N19/102—Methods or arrangements for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals using adaptive coding characterised by the element, parameter or selection affected or controlled by the adaptive coding
    • H04N19/103—Selection of coding mode or of prediction mode
    • H04N19/105—Selection of the reference unit for prediction within a chosen coding or prediction mode, e.g. adaptive choice of position and number of pixels used for prediction
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
    • H04N19/00—Methods or arrangements for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals
    • H04N19/10—Methods or arrangements for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals using adaptive coding
    • H04N19/134—Methods or arrangements for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals using adaptive coding characterised by the element, parameter or criterion affecting or controlling the adaptive coding
    • H04N19/167—Position within a video image, e.g. region of interest [ROI]
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
    • H04N19/00—Methods or arrangements for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals
    • H04N19/10—Methods or arrangements for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals using adaptive coding
    • H04N19/169—Methods or arrangements for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals using adaptive coding characterised by the coding unit, i.e. the structural portion or semantic portion of the video signal being the object or the subject of the adaptive coding
    • H04N19/17—Methods or arrangements for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals using adaptive coding characterised by the coding unit, i.e. the structural portion or semantic portion of the video signal being the object or the subject of the adaptive coding the unit being an image region, e.g. an object
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
    • H04N19/00—Methods or arrangements for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals
    • H04N19/10—Methods or arrangements for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals using adaptive coding
    • H04N19/169—Methods or arrangements for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals using adaptive coding characterised by the coding unit, i.e. the structural portion or semantic portion of the video signal being the object or the subject of the adaptive coding
    • H04N19/17—Methods or arrangements for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals using adaptive coding characterised by the coding unit, i.e. the structural portion or semantic portion of the video signal being the object or the subject of the adaptive coding the unit being an image region, e.g. an object
    • H04N19/174—Methods or arrangements for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals using adaptive coding characterised by the coding unit, i.e. the structural portion or semantic portion of the video signal being the object or the subject of the adaptive coding the unit being an image region, e.g. an object the region being a slice, e.g. a line of blocks or a group of blocks
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
    • H04N19/00—Methods or arrangements for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals
    • H04N19/30—Methods or arrangements for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals using hierarchical techniques, e.g. scalability
    • H04N19/33—Methods or arrangements for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals using hierarchical techniques, e.g. scalability in the spatial domain
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
    • H04N19/00—Methods or arrangements for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals
    • H04N19/50—Methods or arrangements for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals using predictive coding
    • H04N19/503—Methods or arrangements for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals using predictive coding involving temporal prediction
    • H04N19/51—Motion estimation or motion compensation
    • H04N19/55—Motion estimation with spatial constraints, e.g. at image or region borders
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
    • H04N21/00—Selective content distribution, e.g. interactive television or video on demand [VOD]
    • H04N21/20—Servers specifically adapted for the distribution of content, e.g. VOD servers; Operations thereof
    • H04N21/23—Processing of content or additional data; Elementary server operations; Server middleware
    • H04N21/234—Processing of video elementary streams, e.g. splicing of video streams or manipulating encoded video stream scene graphs
    • H04N21/2343—Processing of video elementary streams, e.g. splicing of video streams or manipulating encoded video stream scene graphs involving reformatting operations of video signals for distribution or compliance with end-user requests or end-user device requirements
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
    • H04N21/00—Selective content distribution, e.g. interactive television or video on demand [VOD]
    • H04N21/40—Client devices specifically adapted for the reception of or interaction with content, e.g. set-top-box [STB]; Operations thereof
    • H04N21/47—End-user applications
    • H04N21/472—End-user interface for requesting content, additional data or services; End-user interface for interacting with content, e.g. for content reservation or setting reminders, for requesting event notification, for manipulating displayed content
    • H04N21/4728—End-user interface for requesting content, additional data or services; End-user interface for interacting with content, e.g. for content reservation or setting reminders, for requesting event notification, for manipulating displayed content for selecting a Region Of Interest [ROI], e.g. for requesting a higher resolution version of a selected region

Definitions

  • the present invention relates to an apparatus, a method and a computer program for video coding and decoding.
  • the bitrate is aimed to be reduced e.g. such that the primary viewport (i.e., the current viewing orientation) is transmitted at the best quality/resolution, while the remaining of 360-degree video is transmitted at a lower quality/resolution.
  • the viewing orientation changes, e.g. when the user turns his/her head when viewing the content with a head-mounted display, another version of the content needs to be streamed, matching the new viewing orientation.
  • the viewport-dependent omnidirectional video can be delivered, for example, as equal-resolution High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) bitstreams with motion-constrained tile sets (MCTSs).
  • HEVC High Efficiency Video Coding
  • MCTSs motion-constrained tile sets
  • HEVC bitstreams of the same omnidirectional source content are encoded at the same resolution but different qualities and bitrates using motion-constrained tile sets.
  • Another option to deliver the viewport-dependent omnidirectional video is to carry out HEVC Scalable Extension (SHVC) region-of interest scalability encoding.
  • SHVC HEVC Scalable Extension
  • a further method is called constrained inter-layer prediction (CILP).
  • CILP constrained inter-layer prediction
  • certain input pictures are chosen to be encoded into two coded pictures in the same bitstream, the first referred to as a shared coded picture.
  • a shared coded picture in a first bitstream is identical to the respective shared coded picture in a second bitstream.
  • the encoding method facilitates decoding a first bitstream up to a selected shared coded picture, exclusive, and decoding a second bitstream starting from the respective shared coded picture. No intra-coded picture is required to start the decoding of the second bitstream, and consequently compression efficiency is improved compared to a conventional approach.
  • CILP enables the use of HEVC Main profile encoder and decoder, and hence has better compatibility with implementations than the SHVC ROI approach. Moreover, CILP takes advantage of relatively low intra picture frequency (similarly to the SHVC ROI approach). However, when compared to the SHVC ROI approach, CILP suffers from the use of MCTSs for the base-quality tiles and CILP has inferior streaming rate-distortion
  • the SHVC ROI and the CILP approaches have advantages over each other in different situations, but neither of them outperforms the other in all situations.
  • a method comprises encoding an input picture sequence into a first bitstream, said encoding comprising: assigning a picture area to a first constituent picture area and a first tile area that are non-overlapping within the picture area; encoding a first input picture into a coded constituent picture of a first coded picture of the first bitstream, wherein the coded constituent picture in the first bitstream occupies the first constituent picture area, and the first coded picture of the first bitstream occupies the picture area, and wherein said encoding comprises reconstructing a first reconstructed constituent picture corresponding to the coded constituent picture in the first bitstream; and encoding a first region of the first input picture into a first set of coded tiles, wherein the first set of coded tiles occupies the first tile area, and wherein said encoding comprises prediction using the coded constituent picture in the first bitstream or the first reconstructed constituent picture as a reference, and the first set of coded tiles is encoded into the first coded picture or into a second code
  • the encoding of first tile area is constrained such that no coded or reconstructed tiles that precede the first set of coded tiles in decoding order and occupy the first tile area are used as a reference for predicting the first set of coded tiles or any subsequent coded tiles in decoding order occupying the first tile area.
  • the method further comprises encoding a region of the second input picture into a first motion-constrained tile set, wherein the first motion- constrained tile set occupies a first tile region in the first tile area, and wherein selection of coding parameters is such that references to the first tile area outside the first tile region are avoided.
  • the method further comprises encoding the input picture sequence into a second bitstream, said encoding comprising: encoding the first input picture into a coded constituent picture of a first coded picture of the second bitstream, wherein the coded constituent picture in the second bitstream occupies the first constituent picture area, and the first coded picture of the second bitstream occupies the picture area, and wherein said encoding comprises reconstructing a second reconstructed constituent picture corresponding to the coded constituent picture in the second bitstream, wherein the second reconstructed constituent picture is identical to the first reconstructed constituent picture; and encoding a second region of the first input picture into a second set of coded tiles, wherein the second set of coded tiles occupies the first tile area, and wherein said encoding comprises prediction using the coded constituent picture in the second bitstream or the second reconstructed constituent picture as a reference, and the second set of coded tiles is encoded into the first coded picture or into a second coded picture of the second bitstream, the second
  • the encoding of first tile area is constrained such that no coded or reconstructed tiles that precede the second set of coded tiles in decoding order and occupy the first tile area are used as a reference for predicting the second set of coded tiles or any subsequent coded tiles in decoding order occupying the first tile area.
  • a second aspect relates to a method comprising: obtaining a first bitstream, wherein a picture area is assigned to a first constituent picture area and a first tile area that are non- overlapping within the picture area and a first input picture has been encoded into a coded constituent picture of a first coded picture of the first bitstream, wherein the coded constituent picture in the first bitstream occupies the first constituent picture area, and the first coded picture of the first bitstream occupies the picture area, and the first bitstream comprising a first reconstructed constituent picture corresponding to the coded constituent picture and the encoding of the first tile area is constrained such that no coded or reconstructed tiles that precede a first set of coded tiles in decoding order and occupy the first tile area are used as a reference for predicting the first set of coded tiles or any subsequent coded tiles in decoding order occupying the first tile area; obtaining a second bitstream, wherein the first input picture has been encoded into a coded constituent picture of a first coded picture
  • a third aspect relates to a method comprising: obtaining a first bitstream, wherein a picture area is assigned to a first constituent picture area and a first tile area that are non- overlapping within the picture area and a first input picture has been encoded into a coded constituent picture of a first coded picture of the first bitstream, wherein the coded constituent picture in the first bitstream occupies the first constituent picture area, and the first coded picture of the first bitstream occupies the picture area, and the first bitstream comprising a first reconstructed constituent picture corresponding to the coded constituent picture and the encoding of the first tile area is constrained such that no coded or reconstructed tiles that precede a first set of coded tiles in decoding order and occupy the first tile area are used as a reference for predicting the first set of coded tiles or any subsequent coded tiles in decoding order occupying the first tile area.; obtaining a second bitstream, wherein the first input picture has been encoded into a coded constituent picture of a first coded
  • the method further comprises indicating a switching position that switching from the third track to the second track is allowed starting from the first coded picture of the first bitstream and/or that switching from the second track to the third track is allowed starting from the first coded picture of the second bitstream, said indication residing in the first and/or second bitstream, in a first segment or sub-segment formed from the first bitstream, in a second segment or sub-segment formed from the second bitstream, and/or in a media presentation description.
  • the method further comprises indicating in a fourth track a bitstream constructed by merging a constituent coded picture and a time-aligned set of coded tiles from the first or second sequence of coded tiles in a picture by picture manner, whereby switching between the first or second sequence coded tiles is limited to happen at the switching position.
  • the fourth track either comprises at least a first extractor causing inclusion of data from the first track by reference or encapsulates the sequence of coded constituent pictures; and the fourth track comprises at least a second extractor causing inclusion of data from one of the second or the third track by reference.
  • the further aspects relate to apparatuses and computer readable storage media stored with code thereon, which are arranged to carry out the above methods and one or more of the embodiments related thereto.
  • Figure 1 shows schematically an electronic device employing embodiments of the invention
  • Figure 2 shows schematically a user equipment suitable for employing
  • Figure 3 further shows schematically electronic devices employing embodiments of the invention connected using wireless and wired network connections;
  • Figure 4 shows schematically an encoder suitable for implementing embodiments of the invention;
  • Figure 5 shows an example of stitching, projecting and mapped images of the same time instance onto a packed virtual reality frame
  • Figure 6 shows a process of forming a monoscopic equirectangular panorama picture
  • Figure 7 shows an example of a hierarchical data model used in DASH
  • Figure 8 shows an example of mapping a higher resolution sampled front face of a cube map on the same packed virtual reality frame as other cube faces;
  • Figure 9a shows an example of delivery of equal-resolution HEVC bitstreams with motion-constrained tile sets
  • Figure 9b shows an example of SHVC ROI scalability encoding
  • Figure 10 shows an example of constrained inter-layer prediction (CILP) encoding
  • Figure 11 shows a flow chart of an encoding method according to an embodiment of the invention.
  • Figure 12 shows an example of the encoding method according to an embodiment of the invention
  • Figures 13a and 13b show an example of encoding two bitstreams and switching between them according to various embodiments of the invention
  • Figure 14 shows an example of using intra block copy coding according to an embodiment of the invention
  • Figure 15 shows a flow chart of an encapsulation method according to an embodiment of the invention.
  • Figure 16 shows a flow chart of an indication method according to an embodiment of the invention.
  • Figure 17 shows an example of file arrangement using tracks/Representations according to an embodiment of the invention
  • Figure 18 shows an example of a video coding scheme using slices instead of tiles according to an embodiment of the invention
  • Figure 19 shows an example of spatial multiplexing according to an embodiment of the invention
  • Figures 20a, 20b and 20c show examples of spatial packing of left and right views into a single bitstream according to various embodiments of the invention.
  • Figures 21a and 21b show examples of temporal packing of left and right views into a single bitstream according to various embodiments of the invention;
  • Figure 22 shows a schematic diagram of a decoder suitable for implementing embodiments of the invention.
  • Figure 23 shows a schematic diagram of an example multimedia communication system within which various embodiments may be implemented.
  • Figure 1 shows a block diagram of a video coding system according to an example embodiment as a schematic block diagram of an exemplary apparatus or electronic device 50, which may incorporate a codec according to an embodiment of the invention.
  • Figure 2 shows a layout of an apparatus according to an example embodiment. The elements of Figs. 1 and 2 will be explained next.
  • the electronic device 50 may for example be a mobile terminal or user equipment of a wireless communication system. However, it would be appreciated that embodiments of the invention may be implemented within any electronic device or apparatus which may require encoding and decoding or encoding or decoding video images.
  • the apparatus 50 may comprise a housing 30 for incorporating and protecting the device.
  • the apparatus 50 further may comprise a display 32 in the form of a liquid crystal display.
  • the display may be any suitable display technology suitable to display an image or video.
  • the apparatus 50 may further comprise a keypad 34.
  • any suitable data or user interface mechanism may be employed.
  • the user interface may be implemented as a virtual keyboard or data entry system as part of a touch-sensitive display.
  • the apparatus may comprise a microphone 36 or any suitable audio input which may be a digital or analogue signal input.
  • the apparatus 50 may further comprise an audio output device which in embodiments of the invention may be any one of: an earpiece 38, speaker, or an analogue audio or digital audio output connection.
  • the apparatus 50 may also comprise a battery (or in other embodiments of the invention the device may be powered by any suitable mobile energy device such as solar cell, fuel cell or clockwork generator).
  • the apparatus may further comprise a camera capable of recording or capturing images and/or video.
  • the apparatus 50 may further comprise an infrared port for short range line of sight communication to other devices. In other embodiments the apparatus 50 may further comprise any suitable short range communication solution such as for example a Bluetooth wireless connection or a USB/firewire wired connection.
  • the apparatus 50 may comprise a controller 56, processor or processor circuitry for controlling the apparatus 50.
  • the controller 56 may be connected to memory 58 which in embodiments of the invention may store both data in the form of image and audio data and/or may also store instructions for implementation on the controller 56.
  • the controller 56 may further be connected to codec circuitry 54 suitable for carrying out coding and decoding of audio and/or video data or assisting in coding and decoding carried out by the controller.
  • the apparatus 50 may further comprise a card reader 48 and a smart card 46, for example a UICC and UICC reader for providing user information and being suitable for providing authentication information for authentication and authorization of the user at a network.
  • a card reader 48 and a smart card 46 for example a UICC and UICC reader for providing user information and being suitable for providing authentication information for authentication and authorization of the user at a network.
  • the apparatus 50 may comprise radio interface circuitry 52 connected to the controller and suitable for generating wireless communication signals for example for communication with a cellular communications network, a wireless communications system or a wireless local area network.
  • the apparatus 50 may further comprise an antenna 44 connected to the radio interface circuitry 52 for transmitting radio frequency signals generated at the radio interface circuitry 52 to other apparatus(es) and for receiving radio frequency signals from other apparatus(es).
  • the apparatus 50 may comprise a camera capable of recording or detecting individual frames which are then passed to the codec 54 or the controller for processing.
  • the apparatus may receive the video image data for processing from another device prior to transmission and/or storage.
  • the apparatus 50 may also receive either wirelessly or by a wired connection the image for coding/decoding.
  • the structural elements of apparatus 50 described above represent examples of means for performing a corresponding function.
  • the system 10 comprises multiple communication devices which can communicate through one or more networks.
  • the system 10 may comprise any combination of wired or wireless networks including, but not limited to a wireless cellular telephone network (such as a GSM, UMTS, CDMA network etc.), a wireless local area network (WLAN) such as defined by any of the IEEE 802.x standards, a Bluetooth personal area network, an Ethernet local area network, a token ring local area network, a wide area network, and the Internet.
  • the system 10 may include both wired and wireless communication devices and/or apparatus 50 suitable for implementing embodiments of the invention.
  • the system shown in Figure 3 shows a mobile telephone network 11 and a representation of the internet 28.
  • Connectivity to the internet 28 may include, but is not limited to, long range wireless connections, short range wireless connections, and various wired connections including, but not limited to, telephone lines, cable lines, power lines, and similar communication pathways.
  • the example communication devices shown in the system 10 may include, but are not limited to, an electronic device or apparatus 50, a combination of a personal digital assistant (PDA) and a mobile telephone 14, a PDA 16, an integrated messaging device (IMD) 18, a desktop computer 20, a notebook computer 22.
  • PDA personal digital assistant
  • IMD integrated messaging device
  • the apparatus 50 may be stationary or mobile when carried by an individual who is moving.
  • the apparatus 50 may also be located in a mode of transport including, but not limited to, a car, a truck, a taxi, a bus, a train, a boat, an airplane, a bicycle, a motorcycle or any similar suitable mode of transport.
  • the embodiments may also be implemented in a set-top box; i.e. a digital TV receiver, which may/may not have a display or wireless capabilities, in tablets or (laptop) personal computers (PC), which have hardware or software or combination of the
  • encoder/decoder implementations in various operating systems, and in chipsets, processors, DSPs and/or embedded systems offering hardware/software based coding.
  • Some or further apparatus may send and receive calls and messages and
  • the base station 24 may be connected to a network server 26 that allows communication between the mobile telephone network 11 and the internet 28.
  • the system may include additional communication devices and communication devices of various types.
  • the communication devices may communicate using various transmission technologies including, but not limited to, code division multiple access (CDMA), global systems for mobile communications (GSM), universal mobile telecommunications system (UMTS), time divisional multiple access (TDMA), frequency division multiple access (FDMA), transmission control protocol-internet protocol (TCP-IP), short messaging service (SMS), multimedia messaging service (MMS), email, instant messaging service (IMS), Bluetooth, IEEE 802.11 and any similar wireless communication technology.
  • CDMA code division multiple access
  • GSM global systems for mobile communications
  • UMTS universal mobile telecommunications system
  • TDMA time divisional multiple access
  • FDMA frequency division multiple access
  • TCP-IP transmission control protocol-internet protocol
  • SMS short messaging service
  • MMS multimedia messaging service
  • email instant messaging service
  • IMS instant messaging service
  • Bluetooth IEEE 802.11 and any similar wireless communication technology
  • a channel may refer either to a physical channel or to a logical channel.
  • a physical channel may refer to a physical transmission medium such as a wire
  • a logical channel may refer to a logical connection over a multiplexed medium, capable of conveying several logical channels.
  • a channel may be used for conveying an information signal, for example a bitstream, from one or several senders (or transmitters) to one or several receivers.
  • An MPEG-2 transport stream (TS), specified in ISO/IEC 13818- 1 or equivalently in ITU-T Recommendation H.222.0, is a format for carrying audio, video, and other media as well as program metadata or other metadata, in a multiplexed stream.
  • a packet identifier (PID) is used to identify an elementary stream (a.k.a. packetized elementary stream) within the TS.
  • PID packet identifier
  • Available media file format standards include ISO base media file format (ISO/IEC 14496-12, which may be abbreviated ISOBMFF) and file format for NAL unit structured video (ISO/IEC 14496-15), which derives from the ISOBMFF.
  • ISOBMFF ISO base media file format
  • ISO/IEC 14496-15 file format for NAL unit structured video
  • ISOBMFF Some concepts, structures, and specifications of ISOBMFF are described below as an example of a container file format, based on which the embodiments may be implemented.
  • the aspects of the invention are not limited to ISOBMFF, but rather the description is given for one possible basis on top of which the invention may be partly or fully realized.
  • a basic building block in the ISO base media file format is called a box.
  • Each box has a header and a payload.
  • the box header indicates the type of the box and the size of the box in terms of bytes.
  • a box may enclose other boxes, and the ISO file format specifies which box types are allowed within a box of a certain type. Furthermore, the presence of some boxes may be mandatory in each file, while the presence of other boxes may be optional. Additionally, for some box types, it may be allowable to have more than one box present in a file. Thus, the ISO base media file format may be considered to specify a hierarchical structure of boxes.
  • a file includes media data and metadata that are encapsulated into boxes. Each box is identified by a four character code (4CC) and starts with a header which informs about the type and size of the box.
  • 4CC four character code
  • the media data may be provided in a media data 'mdat' box and the movie 'moov' box may be used to enclose the metadata.
  • both of the 'mdat' and 'moov' boxes may be required to be present.
  • the movie 'moov' box may include one or more tracks, and each track may reside in one corresponding track 'trak' box.
  • a track may be one of the many types, including a media track that refers to samples formatted according to a media compression format (and its encapsulation to the ISO base media file format).
  • Movie fragments may be used e.g. when recording content to ISO files e.g. in order to avoid losing data if a recording application crashes, runs out of memory space, or some other incident occurs. Without movie fragments, data loss may occur because the file format may require that all metadata, e.g., the movie box, be written in one contiguous area of the file. Furthermore, when recording a file, there may not be sufficient amount of memory space (e.g., random access memory RAM) to buffer a movie box for the size of the storage available, and re-computing the contents of a movie box when the movie is closed may be too slow. Moreover, movie fragments may enable simultaneous recording and playback of a file using a regular ISO file parser. Furthermore, a smaller duration of initial buffering may be required for progressive downloading, e.g., simultaneous reception and playback of a file when movie fragments are used and the initial movie box is smaller compared to a file with the same media content but structured without movie fragments.
  • memory space e.g.
  • the movie fragment feature may enable splitting the metadata that otherwise might reside in the movie box into multiple pieces. Each piece may correspond to a certain period of time of a track.
  • the movie fragment feature may enable interleaving file metadata and media data. Consequently, the size of the movie box may be limited and the use cases mentioned above be realized.
  • the media samples for the movie fragments may reside in an mdat box, if they are in the same file as the moov box.
  • a moof box may be provided.
  • the moof box may include the information for a certain duration of playback time that would previously have been in the moov box.
  • the moov box may still represent a valid movie on its own, but in addition, it may include an mvex box indicating that movie fragments will follow in the same file.
  • the movie fragments may extend the presentation that is associated to the moov box in time.
  • the movie fragment there may be a set of track fragments, including anywhere from zero to a plurality per track.
  • the track fragments may in turn include anywhere from zero to a plurality of track runs, each of which document is a contiguous run of samples for that track.
  • many fields are optional and can be defaulted.
  • the metadata that may be included in the moof box may be limited to a subset of the metadata that may be included in a moov box and may be coded differently in some cases. Details regarding the boxes that can be included in a moof box may be found from the ISO base media file format specification.
  • a self-contained movie fragment may be defined to consist of a moof box and an mdat box that are consecutive in the file order and where the mdat box contains the samples of the movie fragment (for which the moof box provides the metadata) and does not contain samples of any other movie fragment (i.e. any other moof box).
  • the track reference mechanism can be used to associate tracks with each other.
  • the TrackReferenceBox includes box(es), each of which provides a reference from the containing track to a set of other tracks. These references are labeled through the box type (i.e. the four- character code of the box) of the contained box(es).
  • the ISO Base Media File Format contains three mechanisms for timed metadata that can be associated with particular samples: sample groups, timed metadata tracks, and sample auxiliary information. Derived specification may provide similar functionality with one or more of these three mechanisms.
  • a sample grouping in the ISO base media file format and its derivatives may be defined as an assignment of each sample in a track to be a member of one sample group, based on a grouping criterion.
  • a sample group in a sample grouping is not limited to being contiguous samples and may contain non-adjacent samples. As there may be more than one sample grouping for the samples in a track, each sample grouping may have a type field to indicate the type of grouping.
  • Sample groupings may be represented by two linked data structures: (1) a SampleToGroupBox (sbgp box) represents the assignment of samples to sample groups; and (2) a SampleToGroupBox (sbgp box) represents the assignment of samples to sample groups; and (2) a SampleToGroupBox (sbgp box) represents the assignment of samples to sample groups; and (2) a SampleToGroupBox (sbgp box) represents the assignment of samples to sample groups; and (2) a SampleToGroupBox (sbgp box) represents the assignment of samples to sample groups; and (2)
  • SampleGroupDescriptionBox contains a sample group entry for each sample group describing the properties of the group. There may be multiple instances of the
  • SampleToGroupBox and SampleGroupDescriptionBox based on different grouping criteria. These may be distinguished by a type field used to indicate the type of grouping.
  • SampleToGroupBox may comprise a grouping_type_parameter field that can be used e.g. to indicate a sub-type of the grouping.
  • the Matroska file format is capable of (but not limited to) storing any of video, audio, picture, or subtitle tracks in one file.
  • Matroska may be used as a basis format for derived file formats, such as WebM.
  • Matroska uses Extensible Binary Meta Language
  • EBML EBML
  • EBML EBML
  • a Matroska file consists of Elements that make up an EBML "document.” Elements incorporate an Element ID, a descriptor for the size of the element, and the binary data itself. Elements can be nested.
  • a Segment Element of Matroska is a container for other top-level
  • a Matroska file may comprise (but is not limited to be composed of) one Segment. Multimedia data in Matroska files is organized in Clusters (or Cluster Elements), each containing typically a few seconds of multimedia data.
  • a Cluster comprises BlockGroup elements, which in turn comprise Block Elements.
  • a Cues Element comprises metadata which may assist in random access or seeking and may include file pointers or respective timestamps for seek points.
  • Video codec consists of an encoder that transforms the input video into a compressed representation suited for storage/transmission and a decoder that can uncompress the compressed video representation back into a viewable form.
  • a video encoder and/or a video decoder may also be separate from each other, i.e. need not form a codec.
  • encoder discards some information in the original video sequence in order to represent the video in a more compact form (that is, at lower bitrate).
  • Typical hybrid video encoders for example many encoder implementations of ITU- T H.263 and H.264, encode the video information in two phases. Firstly pixel values in a certain picture area (or "block") are predicted for example by motion compensation means (finding and indicating an area in one of the previously coded video frames that corresponds closely to the block being coded) or by spatial means (using the pixel values around the block to be coded in a specified manner). Secondly the prediction error, i.e. the difference between the predicted block of pixels and the original block of pixels, is coded. This is typically done by transforming the difference in pixel values using a specified transform (e.g.
  • DCT Discrete Cosine Transform
  • inter prediction In temporal prediction, the sources of prediction are previously decoded pictures (a.k.a. reference pictures).
  • IBC intra block copy
  • inter-layer or inter- view prediction may be applied similarly to temporal prediction, but the reference picture is a decoded picture from another scalable layer or from another view, respectively.
  • inter prediction may refer to temporal prediction only, while in other cases inter prediction may refer collectively to temporal prediction and any of intra block copy, inter-layer prediction, and inter- view prediction provided that they are performed with the same or similar process than temporal prediction.
  • Inter prediction or temporal prediction may sometimes be referred to as motion compensation or motion-compensated prediction.
  • Inter prediction which may also be referred to as temporal prediction, motion compensation, or motion-compensated prediction, reduces temporal redundancy.
  • inter prediction the sources of prediction are previously decoded pictures.
  • Intra prediction utilizes the fact that adjacent pixels within the same picture are likely to be correlated.
  • Intra prediction can be performed in spatial or transform domain, i.e., either sample values or transform coefficients can be predicted. Intra prediction is typically exploited in intra coding, where no inter prediction is applied.
  • One outcome of the coding procedure is a set of coding parameters, such as motion vectors and quantized transform coefficients. Many parameters can be entropy-coded more efficiently if they are predicted first from spatially or temporally neighboring parameters. For example, a motion vector may be predicted from spatially adjacent motion vectors and only the difference relative to the motion vector predictor may be coded. Prediction of coding parameters and intra prediction may be collectively referred to as in-picture prediction.
  • Figure 4 shows a block diagram of a video encoder suitable for employing embodiments of the invention.
  • Figure 4 presents an encoder for two layers, but it would be appreciated that presented encoder could be similarly extended to encode more than two layers.
  • Figure 4 illustrates an embodiment of a video encoder comprising a first encoder section 500 for a base layer and a second encoder section 502 for an enhancement layer.
  • Each of the first encoder section 500 and the second encoder section 502 may comprise similar elements for encoding incoming pictures.
  • the encoder sections 500, 502 may comprise a pixel predictor 302, 402, prediction error encoder 303, 403 and prediction error decoder 304, 404.
  • Figure 4 also shows an embodiment of the pixel predictor 302, 402 as comprising an inter-predictor 306, 406, an intra-predictor 308, 408, a mode selector 310, 410, a filter 316, 416, and a reference frame memory 318, 418.
  • the pixel predictor 302 of the first encoder section 500 receives 300 base layer images of a video stream to be encoded at both the inter- predictor 306 (which determines the difference between the image and a motion compensated reference frame 318) and the intra-predictor 308 (which determines a prediction for an image block based only on the already processed parts of current frame or picture).
  • the output of both the inter-predictor and the intra-predictor are passed to the mode selector 310.
  • the intra- predictor 308 may have more than one intra-prediction modes. Hence, each mode may perform the intra-prediction and provide the predicted signal to the mode selector 310.
  • the mode selector 310 also receives a copy of the base layer picture 300.
  • the pixel predictor 402 of the second encoder section 502 receives 400 enhancement layer images of a video stream to be encoded at both the inter-predictor 406 (which determines the difference between the image and a motion compensated reference frame 418) and the intra- predictor 408 (which determines a prediction for an image block based only on the already processed parts of current frame or picture).
  • the output of both the inter-predictor and the intra-predictor are passed to the mode selector 410.
  • the intra-predictor 408 may have more than one intra-prediction modes. Hence, each mode may perform the intra-prediction and provide the predicted signal to the mode selector 410.
  • the mode selector 410 also receives a copy of the enhancement layer picture 400.
  • the output of the inter-predictor 306, 406 or the output of one of the optional intra-predictor modes or the output of a surface encoder within the mode selector is passed to the output of the mode selector 310, 410.
  • the output of the mode selector is passed to a first summing device 321 , 421.
  • the first summing device may subtract the output of the pixel predictor 302, 402 from the base layer picture 300/enhancement layer picture 400 to produce a first prediction error signal 320, 420 which is input to the prediction error encoder 303, 403.
  • the pixel predictor 302, 402 further receives from a preliminary reconstructor 339, 439 the combination of the prediction representation of the image block 312, 412 and the output 338, 438 of the prediction error decoder 304, 404.
  • the preliminary reconstructed image 314, 414 may be passed to the intra-predictor 308, 408 and to a filter 316, 416.
  • the filter 316, 416 receiving the preliminary representation may filter the preliminary
  • the reference frame memory 318 may be connected to the inter-predictor 306 to be used as the reference image against which a future base layer picture 300 is compared in inter-prediction operations.
  • the reference frame memory 318 may also be connected to the inter-predictor 406 to be used as the reference image against which a future enhancement layer pictures 400 is compared in inter-prediction operations.
  • the reference frame memory 418 may be connected to the inter- predictor 406 to be used as the reference image against which a future enhancement layer picture 400 is compared in inter-prediction operations.
  • Filtering parameters from the filter 316 of the first encoder section 500 may be provided to the second encoder section 502 subject to the base layer being selected and indicated to be source for predicting the filtering parameters of the enhancement layer according to some embodiments.
  • the prediction error encoder 303, 403 comprises a transform unit 342, 442 and a quantizer 344, 444.
  • the transform unit 342, 442 transforms the first prediction error signal 320, 420 to a transform domain.
  • the transform is, for example, the DCT transform.
  • the quantizer 344, 444 quantizes the transform domain signal, e.g. the DCT coefficients, to form quantized coefficients.
  • the prediction error decoder 304, 404 receives the output from the prediction error encoder 303, 403 and performs the opposite processes of the prediction error encoder 303, 403 to produce a decoded prediction error signal 338, 438 which, when combined with the prediction representation of the image block 312, 412 at the second summing device 339, 439, produces the preliminary reconstructed image 314, 414.
  • the prediction error decoder may be considered to comprise a dequantizer 361, 461, which dequantizes the quantized coefficient values, e.g. DCT coefficients, to reconstruct the transform signal and an inverse
  • the prediction error decoder may also comprise a block filter which may filter the reconstructed block(s) according to further decoded information and filter parameters.
  • the entropy encoder 330, 430 receives the output of the prediction error encoder 303, 403 and may perform a suitable entropy encoding/variable length encoding on the signal to provide error detection and correction capability.
  • the outputs of the entropy encoders 330, 430 may be inserted into a bitstream e.g. by a multiplexer 508.
  • the H.264/AVC standard was developed by the Joint Video Team (JVT) of the Video Coding Experts Group (VCEG) of the Telecommunications Standardization Sector of International Telecommunication Union (ITU-T) and the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) of International Organisation for Standardization (ISO) / International
  • H.264/AVC Electrotechnical Commission
  • ISO/IEC International Standard 14496-10 also known as MPEG-4 Part 10 Advanced Video Coding (AVC).
  • AVC MPEG-4 Part 10 Advanced Video Coding
  • SVC Scalable Video Coding
  • MVC Multiview Video Coding
  • H.265/HEVC a.k.a. HEVC High Efficiency Video Coding
  • JCT-VC Joint Collaborative Team - Video Coding
  • the standard was published by both parent standardization organizations, and it is referred to as ITU-T Recommendation H.265 and ISO/IEC International Standard 23008-2, also known as MPEG-H Part 2 High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC).
  • SHVC, MV-HEVC, and 3D-HEVC use a common basis specification, specified in Annex F of the version 2 of the HEVC standard.
  • This common basis comprises for example high-level syntax and semantics e.g. specifying some of the characteristics of the layers of the bitstream, such as inter-layer dependencies, as well as decoding processes, such as reference picture list construction including inter-layer reference pictures and picture order count derivation for multi-layer bitstream.
  • Annex F may also be used in potential subsequent multilayer extensions of HEVC.
  • a video encoder a video decoder, encoding methods, decoding methods, bitstream structures, and/or embodiments may be described in the following with reference to specific extensions, such as SHVC and/or MV-HEVC, they are generally applicable to any multi- layer extensions of HEVC, and even more generally to any multi-layer video coding scheme.
  • H.264/AVC and HEVC Some key definitions, bitstream and coding structures, and concepts of H.264/AVC and HEVC are described in this section as an example of a video encoder, decoder, encoding method, decoding method, and a bitstream structure, wherein the embodiments may be implemented.
  • Some of the key definitions, bitstream and coding structures, and concepts of H.264/AVC are the same as in HEVC - hence, they are described below jointly.
  • the aspects of the invention are not limited to H.264/AVC or HEVC, but rather the description is given for one possible basis on top of which the invention may be partly or fully realized.
  • bitstream syntax and semantics as well as the decoding process for error-free bitstreams are specified in
  • HRD Hypothetical Reference Decoder
  • the elementary unit for the input to an H.264/AVC or HEVC encoder and the output of an H.264/AVC or HEVC decoder, respectively, is a picture.
  • a picture given as an input to an encoder may also be referred to as a source picture, and a picture decoded by a decoded may be referred to as a decoded picture.
  • the source and decoded pictures are each comprised of one or more sample arrays, such as one of the following sets of sample arrays:
  • RGB Green, Blue and Red
  • these arrays may be referred to as luma (or L or Y) and chroma, where the two chroma arrays may be referred to as Cb and Cr; regardless of the actual color representation method in use.
  • the actual color representation method in use can be indicated e.g. in a coded bitstream e.g. using the Video Usability Information (VUI) syntax of
  • a component may be defined as an array or single sample from one of the three sample arrays (luma and two chroma) or the array or a single sample of the array that compose a picture in monochrome format.
  • a picture may either be a frame or a field.
  • a frame comprises a matrix of luma samples and possibly the corresponding chroma samples.
  • a field is a set of alternate sample rows of a frame and may be used as encoder input, when the source signal is interlaced.
  • Chroma sample arrays may be absent (and hence monochrome sampling may be in use) or chroma sample arrays may be subsampled when compared to luma sample arrays.
  • Chroma formats may be summarized as follows:
  • each of the two chroma arrays has half the height and half the width of the luma array.
  • each of the two chroma arrays has the same height and half the width of the luma array.
  • each of the two chroma arrays has the same height and width as the luma array.
  • H.264/AVC and HEVC it is possible to code sample arrays as separate color planes into the bitstream and respectively decode separately coded color planes from the bitstream. When separate color planes are in use, each one of them is separately processed (by the encoder and/or the decoder) as a picture with monochrome sampling.
  • a partitioning may be defined as a division of a set into subsets such that each element of the set is in exactly one of the subsets.
  • a coding block may be defined as an NxN block of samples for some value of N such that the division of a coding tree block into coding blocks is a partitioning.
  • a coding tree block may be defined as an NxN block of samples for some value of N such that the division of a component into coding tree blocks is a partitioning.
  • a coding tree unit may be defined as a coding tree block of luma samples, two corresponding coding tree blocks of chroma samples of a picture that has three sample arrays, or a coding tree block of samples of a monochrome picture or a picture that is coded using three separate color planes and syntax structures used to code the samples.
  • a coding unit may be defined as a coding block of luma samples, two corresponding coding blocks of chroma samples of a picture that has three sample arrays, or a coding block of samples of a monochrome picture or a picture that is coded using three separate color planes and syntax structures used to code the samples.
  • a CU with the maximum allowed size may be named as LCU (largest coding unit) or coding tree unit (CTU) and the video picture is divided into non-overlapping LCUs.
  • a CU consists of one or more prediction units (PU) defining the prediction process for the samples within the CU and one or more transform units (TU) defining the prediction error coding process for the samples in the said CU.
  • PU prediction units
  • TU transform units
  • a CU consists of a square block of samples with a size selectable from a predefined set of possible CU sizes.
  • Each PU and TU can be further split into smaller PUs and TUs in order to increase granularity of the prediction and prediction error coding processes, respectively.
  • Each PU has prediction information associated with it defining what kind of a prediction is to be applied for the pixels within that PU (e.g. motion vector information for inter predicted PUs and intra prediction directionality information for intra predicted PUs).
  • Each TU can be associated with information describing the prediction error decoding process for the samples within the said TU (including e.g. DCT coefficient information). It is typically signalled at CU level whether prediction error coding is applied or not for each CU. In the case there is no prediction error residual associated with the CU, it can be considered there are no TUs for the said CU.
  • the division of the image into CUs, and division of CUs into PUs and TUs is typically signalled in the bitstream allowing the decoder to reproduce the intended structure of these units.
  • a picture can be partitioned in tiles, which are rectangular and contain an integer number of LCUs.
  • the partitioning to tiles forms a regular grid, where heights and widths of tiles differ from each other by one LCU at the maximum.
  • a slice is defined to be an integer number of coding tree units contained in one independent slice segment and all subsequent dependent slice segments (if any) that precede the next independent slice segment (if any) within the same access unit.
  • a slice segment is defined to be an integer number of coding tree units ordered consecutively in the tile scan and contained in a single NAL unit. The division of each picture into slice segments is a partitioning.
  • an independent slice segment is defined to be a slice segment for which the values of the syntax elements of the slice segment header are not inferred from the values for a preceding slice segment
  • a dependent slice segment is defined to be a slice segment for which the values of some syntax elements of the slice segment header are inferred from the values for the preceding independent slice segment in decoding order.
  • a slice header is defined to be the slice segment header of the independent slice segment that is a current slice segment or is the independent slice segment that precedes a current dependent slice segment
  • a slice segment header is defined to be a part of a coded slice segment containing the data elements pertaining to the first or all coding tree units represented in the slice segment.
  • the CUs are scanned in the raster scan order of LCUs within tiles or within a picture, if tiles are not in use. Within an LCU, the CUs have a specific scan order.
  • a motion-constrained tile set is such that the inter prediction process is constrained in encoding such that no sample value outside the motion-constrained tile set, and no sample value at a fractional sample position that is derived using one or more sample values outside the motion-constrained tile set, is used for inter prediction of any sample within the motion-constrained tile set. Additionally, the encoding of an MCTS is constrained in a manner that motion vector candidates are not derived from blocks outside the MCTS.
  • an MCTS may be defined to be a tile set that is independent of any sample values and coded data, such as motion vectors, that are outside the MCTS. In some cases, an MCTS may be required to form a rectangular area. It should be understood that depending on the context, an MCTS may refer to the tile set within a picture or to the respective tile set in a sequence of pictures. The respective tile set may be, but in general need not be, collocated in the sequence of pictures.
  • sample locations used in inter prediction may be saturated by the encoding and/or decoding process so that a location that would be outside the picture otherwise is saturated to point to the corresponding boundary sample of the picture.
  • encoders may allow motion vectors to effectively cross that boundary or a motion vector to effectively cause fractional sample interpolation that would refer to a location outside that boundary, since the sample locations are saturated onto the boundary.
  • encoders may constrain the motion vectors on picture boundaries similarly to any MCTS boundaries.
  • the temporal motion-constrained tile sets SEI message of HEVC can be used to indicate the presence of motion-constrained tile sets in the bitstream.
  • the decoder reconstructs the output video by applying prediction means similar to the encoder to form a predicted representation of the pixel blocks (using the motion or spatial information created by the encoder and stored in the compressed representation) and prediction error decoding (inverse operation of the prediction error coding recovering the quantized prediction error signal in spatial pixel domain). After applying prediction and prediction error decoding means the decoder sums up the prediction and prediction error signals (pixel values) to form the output video frame.
  • the decoder (and encoder) can also apply additional filtering means to improve the quality of the output video before passing it for display and/or storing it as prediction reference for the forthcoming frames in the video sequence.
  • the filtering may for example include one more of the following: deblocking, sample adaptive offset (SAO), and/or adaptive loop filtering (ALF).
  • deblocking sample adaptive offset (SAO)
  • ALF adaptive loop filtering
  • H.264/AVC includes a deblocking
  • HEVC includes both deblocking and SAO.
  • the motion information is indicated with motion vectors associated with each motion compensated image block, such as a prediction unit.
  • Each of these motion vectors represents the displacement of the image block in the picture to be coded (in the encoder side) or decoded (in the decoder side) and the prediction source block in one of the previously coded or decoded pictures.
  • those are typically coded differentially with respect to block specific predicted motion vectors.
  • the predicted motion vectors are created in a predefined way, for example calculating the median of the encoded or decoded motion vectors of the adjacent blocks.
  • Another way to create motion vector predictions is to generate a list of candidate predictions from adjacent blocks and/or co-located blocks in temporal reference pictures and signalling the chosen candidate as the motion vector predictor.
  • it can be predicted which reference picture(s) are used for motion- compensated prediction and this prediction information may be represented for example by a reference index of previously coded/decoded picture.
  • the reference index is typically predicted from adjacent blocks and/or co-located blocks in temporal reference picture.
  • typical high efficiency video codecs employ an additional motion information coding/decoding mechanism, often called merging/merge mode, where all the motion field information, which includes motion vector and corresponding reference picture index for each available reference picture list, is predicted and used without any modification/correction.
  • predicting the motion field information is carried out using the motion field information of adjacent blocks and/or co-located blocks in temporal reference pictures and the used motion field information is signalled among a list of motion field candidate list filled with motion field information of available adjacent/co-located blocks.
  • Typical video encoders utilize Lagrangian cost functions to find optimal coding modes, e.g. the desired coding mode for a block and associated motion vectors.
  • This kind of cost function uses a weighting factor ⁇ to tie together the (exact or estimated) image distortion due to lossy coding methods and the (exact or estimated) amount of information that is required to represent the pixel values in an image area:
  • C the Lagrangian cost to be minimized
  • D the image distortion (e.g. Mean Squared Error) with the mode and motion vectors considered
  • R the number of bits needed to represent the required data to reconstruct the image block in the decoder (including the amount of data to represent the candidate motion vectors).
  • Video coding standards and specifications may allow encoders to divide a coded picture to coded slices or alike. In-picture prediction is typically disabled across slice boundaries. Thus, slices can be regarded as a way to split a coded picture to independently decodable pieces. In H.264/AVC and HEVC, in-picture prediction may be disabled across slice boundaries. Thus, slices can be regarded as a way to split a coded picture into independently decodable pieces, and slices are therefore often regarded as elementary units for transmission. In many cases, encoders may indicate in the bitstream which types of in- picture prediction are turned off across slice boundaries, and the decoder operation takes this information into account for example when concluding which prediction sources are available. For example, samples from a neighboring CU may be regarded as unavailable for intra prediction, if the neighboring CU resides in a different slice.
  • An elementary unit for the output of an H.264/AVC or HEVC encoder and the input of an H.264/AVC or HEVC decoder, respectively, is a Network Abstraction Layer
  • NAL unit For transport over packet-oriented networks or storage into structured files, NAL units may be encapsulated into packets or similar structures.
  • a bytestream format has been specified in H.264/AVC and HEVC for transmission or storage environments that do not provide framing structures.
  • the bytestream format separates NAL units from each other by attaching a start code in front of each NAL unit. To avoid false detection of NAL unit boundaries, encoders run a byte-oriented start code emulation prevention algorithm, which adds an emulation prevention byte to the NAL unit payload if a start code would have occurred otherwise.
  • a NAL unit may be defined as a syntax structure containing an indication of the type of data to follow and bytes containing that data in the form of an RBSP interspersed as necessary with emulation prevention bytes.
  • a raw byte sequence payload (RBSP) may be defined as a syntax structure containing an integer number of bytes that is encapsulated in a NAL unit.
  • An RBSP is either empty or has the form of a string of data bits containing syntax elements followed by an RBSP stop bit and followed by zero or more subsequent bits equal to 0.
  • NAL units consist of a header and payload.
  • the NAL unit header indicates the type of the NAL unit [01 1 1]
  • HEVC a two-byte NAL unit header is used for all specified NAL unit types.
  • the NAL unit header contains one reserved bit, a six-bit NAL unit type indication, a three-bit nuh_temporal_id_plusl indication for temporal level (may be required to be greater than or equal to 1) and a six-bit nuh layer id syntax element.
  • TID may be used to interchangeably with the Temporalld variable.
  • Temporalld 0 corresponds to the lowest temporal level.
  • the value of temporal_id_plusl is required to be non-zero in order to avoid start code emulation involving the two NAL unit header bytes.
  • the bitstream created by excluding all VCL NAL units having a Temporalld greater than or equal to a selected value and including all other VCL NAL units remains conforming.
  • a sub-layer or a temporal sub-layer may be defined to be a temporal scalable layer (or a temporal layer, TL) of a temporal scalable bitstream, consisting of VCL NAL units with a particular value of the
  • nuh layer id can be understood as a scalability layer identifier.
  • NAL units can be categorized into Video Coding Layer (VCL) NAL units and non- VCL NAL units.
  • VCL NAL units are typically coded slice NAL units.
  • VCL NAL units contain syntax elements representing one or more CU.
  • TRAIL Temporal Sub-layer Access
  • STSA Step-wise Temporal Sub-layer Access
  • RDL Random Access Decodable Leading
  • RASL Random Access Skipped Leading
  • BLA Broken Link Access
  • IDR Instantaneous Decoding Refresh
  • CRA Clean Random Access
  • a Random Access Point (RAP) picture which may also be referred to as an intra random access point (IRAP) picture in an independent layer contains only intra-coded slices.
  • An IRAP picture belonging to a predicted layer may contain P, B, and I slices, cannot use inter prediction from other picturesin the same predicted layer, and may use inter-layer prediction from its direct reference layers.
  • an IRAP picture may be a BLA picture, a CRA picture or an IDR picture.
  • the first picture in a bitstream containing a base layer is an IRAP picture at the base layer.
  • an IRAP picture at an independent layer and all subsequent non-RASL pictures at the independent layer in decoding order can be correctly decoded without performing the decoding process of any pictures that precede the IRAP picture in decoding order.
  • the IRAP picture belonging to a predicted layer and all subsequent non-RASL pictures in decoding order within the same predicted layer can be correctly decoded without performing the decoding process of any pictures of the same predicted layer that precede the IRAP picture in decoding order, when the necessary parameter sets are available when they need to be activated and when the decoding of each direct reference layer of the predicted layer has been initialized .
  • a non-VCL NAL unit may be for example one of the following types: a sequence parameter set, a picture parameter set, a supplemental enhancement information (SEI) NAL unit, an access unit delimiter, an end of sequence NAL unit, an end of bitstream NAL unit, or a filler data NAL unit.
  • SEI Supplemental Enhancement Information
  • Parameter sets may be needed for the reconstruction of decoded pictures, whereas many of the other non-VCL NAL units are not necessary for the
  • Parameters that remain unchanged through a coded video sequence may be included in a sequence parameter set.
  • the sequence parameter set may optionally contain video usability information (VUI), which includes parameters that may be important for buffering, picture output timing, rendering, and resource reservation.
  • VUI video usability information
  • a sequence parameter set RBSP includes parameters that can be referred to by one or more picture parameter set RBSPs or one or more SEI NAL units containing a buffering period SEI message.
  • a picture parameter set contains such parameters that are likely to be unchanged in several coded pictures.
  • a picture parameter set RBSP may include parameters that can be referred to by the coded slice NAL units of one or more coded pictures.
  • a video parameter set may be defined as a syntax structure containing syntax elements that apply to zero or more entire coded video sequences as determined by the content of a syntax element found in the SPS referred to by a syntax element found in the PPS referred to by a syntax element found in each slice segment header.
  • a video parameter set RBSP may include parameters that can be referred to by one or more sequence parameter set RBSPs.
  • VPS video parameter set
  • SPS sequence parameter set
  • PPS picture parameter set
  • VPS may provide information about the dependency relationships of the layers in a bitstream, as well as many other information that are applicable to all slices across all (scalability or view) layers in the entire coded video sequence.
  • VPS may be considered to comprise two parts, the base VPS and a VPS extension, where the VPS extension may be optionally present.
  • Out-of-band transmission, signaling or storage can additionally or alternatively be used for other purposes than tolerance against transmission errors, such as ease of access or session negotiation. For example, a sample entry of a track in a file conforming to the ISO
  • Base Media File Format may comprise parameter sets, while the coded data in the bitstream is stored elsewhere in the file or in another file.
  • the phrase along the bitstream (e.g. indicating along the bitstream) may be used in claims and described embodiments to refer to out-of-band transmission, signaling, or storage in a manner that the out-of-band data is associated with the bitstream.
  • the phrase decoding along the bitstream or alike may refer to decoding the referred out-of-band data (which may be obtained from out-of-band transmission, signaling, or storage) that is associated with the bitstream.
  • a SEI NAL unit may contain one or more SEI messages, which are not required for the decoding of output pictures but may assist in related processes, such as picture output timing, rendering, error detection, error concealment, and resource reservation.
  • SEI messages are specified in H.264/AVC and HEVC, and the user data SEI messages enable organizations and companies to specify SEI messages for their own use.
  • H.264/AVC and HEVC contain the syntax and semantics for the specified SEI messages but no process for handling the messages in the recipient is defined.
  • encoders are required to follow the H.264/AVC standard or the HEVC standard when they create SEI messages, and decoders conforming to the H.264/AVC standard or the HEVC standard, respectively, are not required to process SEI messages for output order conformance.
  • One of the reasons to include the syntax and semantics of SEI messages in H.264/AVC and HEVC is to allow different system specifications to interpret the supplemental information identically and hence interoperate. It is intended that system specifications can require the use of particular SEI messages both in the encoding end and in the decoding end, and additionally the process for handling particular SEI messages in the recipient can be specified.
  • SEI NAL units there are two types, namely the suffix SEI NAL unit and the prefix SEI NAL unit, having a different nal unit type value from each other.
  • the SEI message(s) contained in a suffix SEI NAL unit are associated with the VCL NAL unit preceding, in decoding order, the suffix SEI NAL unit.
  • the SEI message(s) contained in a prefix SEI NAL unit are associated with the VCL NAL unit following, in decoding order, the prefix SEI NAL unit.
  • a coded picture is a coded representation of a picture.
  • a coded picture may be defined as a coded representation of a picture containing all coding tree units of the picture.
  • an access unit (AU) may be defined as a set of NAL units that are associated with each other according to a specified classification rule, are consecutive in decoding order, and contain at most one picture with any specific value of nuh layer id.
  • an access unit may also contain non-VCL NAL units. Said specified classification rule may for example associate pictures with the same output time or picture output count value into the same access unit.
  • a bitstream may be defined as a sequence of bits, in the form of a NAL unit stream or a byte stream, that forms the representation of coded pictures and associated data forming one or more coded video sequences.
  • a first bitstream may be followed by a second bitstream in the same logical channel, such as in the same file or in the same connection of a
  • An elementary stream (in the context of video coding) may be defined as a sequence of one or more bitstreams.
  • the end of the first bitstream may be indicated by a specific NAL unit, which may be referred to as the end of bitstream (EOB) NAL unit and which is the last NAL unit of the bitstream.
  • EOB NAL unit In HEVC and its current draft extensions, the EOB NAL unit is required to have nuh layer id equal to 0.
  • a coded video sequence is defined to be a sequence of consecutive access units in decoding order from an IDR access unit, inclusive, to the next IDR access unit, exclusive, or to the end of the bitstream, whichever appears earlier.
  • a coded video sequence may be defined, for example, as a sequence of access units that consists, in decoding order, of an IRAP access unit with
  • NoRaslOutputFlag 1 , followed by zero or more access units that are not IRAP access units with NoRaslOutputFlag equal to 1 , including all subsequent access units up to but not including any subsequent access unit that is an IRAP access unit with NoRaslOutputFlag equal to 1.
  • An IRAP access unit may be defined as an access unit in which the base layer picture is an IRAP picture.
  • the value of NoRaslOutputFlag is equal to 1 for each IDR picture, each BLA picture, and each IRAP picture that is the first picture in that particular layer in the bitstream in decoding order, is the first IRAP picture that follows an end of sequence NAL unit having the same value of nuh layer id in decoding order.
  • HandleCraAsBlaFlag may be set to 1 for example by a player that seeks to a new position in a bitstream or tunes into a broadcast and starts decoding and then starts decoding from a CRA picture.
  • HandleCraAsBlaFlag is equal to 1 for a CRA picture, the CRA picture is handled and decoded as if it were a BLA picture.
  • a coded video sequence may additionally or alternatively (to the specification above) be specified to end, when a specific NAL unit, which may be referred to as an end of sequence (EOS) NAL unit, appears in the bitstream and has nuh layer id equal to O.
  • EOS end of sequence
  • a group of pictures (GOP) and its characteristics may be defined as follows.
  • a GOP can be decoded regardless of whether any previous pictures were decoded.
  • An open GOP is such a group of pictures in which pictures preceding the initial intra picture in output order might not be correctly decodable when the decoding starts from the initial intra picture of the open GOP.
  • pictures of an open GOP may refer (in inter prediction) to pictures belonging to a previous GOP.
  • An HEVC decoder can recognize an intra picture starting an open GOP, because a specific NAL unit type, CRA NAL unit type, may be used for its coded slices.
  • a closed GOP is such a group of pictures in which all pictures can be correctly decoded when the decoding starts from the initial intra picture of the closed GOP. In other words, no picture in a closed GOP refers to any pictures in previous GOPs.
  • a closed GOP may start from an IDR picture.
  • a closed GOP may also start from a BLA W RADL or a BLA N LP picture.
  • An open GOP coding structure is potentially more efficient in the compression compared to a closed GOP coding structure, due to a larger flexibility in selection of reference pictures.
  • a Decoded Picture Buffer may be used in the encoder and/or in the decoder. There are two reasons to buffer decoded pictures, for references in inter prediction and for reordering decoded pictures into output order. As H.264/AVC and HEVC provide a great deal of flexibility for both reference picture marking and output reordering, separate buffers for reference picture buffering and output picture buffering may waste memory resources. Hence, the DPB may include a unified decoded picture buffering process for reference pictures and output reordering. A decoded picture may be removed from the DPB when it is no longer used as a reference and is not needed for output.
  • the reference picture for inter prediction is indicated with an index to a reference picture list.
  • the index may be coded with variable length coding, which usually causes a smaller index to have a shorter value for the corresponding syntax element.
  • variable length coding usually causes a smaller index to have a shorter value for the corresponding syntax element.
  • reference picture list 0 and reference picture list 1 are generated for each bi-predictive (B) slice, and one reference picture list (reference picture list 0) is formed for each inter-coded (P) slice.
  • a reference picture index may be coded by an encoder into the bitstream is some inter coding modes or it may be derived (by an encoder and a decoder) for example using neighboring blocks in some other inter coding modes.
  • Scalable video coding may refer to coding structure where one bitstream can contain multiple representations of the content, for example, at different bitrates, resolutions or frame rates.
  • the receiver can extract the desired representation depending on its characteristics (e.g. resolution that matches best the display device).
  • a server or a network element can extract the portions of the bitstream to be transmitted to the receiver depending on e.g. the network characteristics or processing capabilities of the receiver.
  • a meaningful decoded representation can be produced by decoding only certain parts of a scalable bit stream.
  • a scalable bitstream typically consists of a "base layer" providing the lowest quality video available and one or more enhancement layers that enhance the video quality when received and decoded together with the lower layers.
  • the coded representation of that layer typically depends on the lower layers.
  • the motion and mode information of the enhancement layer can be predicted from lower layers.
  • the pixel data of the lower layers can be used to create prediction for the enhancement layer.
  • a video signal can be encoded into a base layer and one or more enhancement layers.
  • An enhancement layer may enhance, for example, the temporal resolution (i.e., the frame rate), the spatial resolution, or simply the quality of the video content represented by another layer or part thereof.
  • Each layer together with all its dependent layers is one representation of the video signal, for example, at a certain spatial resolution, temporal resolution and quality level.
  • a scalable layer together with all of its dependent layers as a "scalable layer representation”.
  • the portion of a scalable bitstream corresponding to a scalable layer representation can be extracted and decoded to produce a representation of the original signal at certain fidelity.
  • Scalability modes or scalability dimensions may include but are not limited to the following:
  • Quality scalability Base layer pictures are coded at a lower quality than enhancement layer pictures, which may be achieved for example using a greater quantization parameter value (i.e., a greater quantization step size for transform coefficient quantization) in the base layer than in the enhancement layer.
  • Quality scalability may be further categorized into fine-grain or fine-granularity scalability (FGS), medium- grain or medium-granularity scalability (MGS), and/or coarse-grain or coarse- granularity scalability (CGS), as described below.
  • FGS fine-grain or fine-granularity scalability
  • MCS medium- grain or medium-granularity scalability
  • CCS coarse-grain or coarse- granularity scalability
  • Base layer pictures are coded at a lower resolution (i.e. have fewer samples) than enhancement layer pictures. Spatial scalability and quality scalability, particularly its coarse-grain scalability type, may sometimes be considered the same type of scalability.
  • Bit-depth scalability Base layer pictures are coded at lower bit-depth (e.g. 8 bits) than enhancement layer pictures (e.g. 10 or 12 bits).
  • Dynamic range scalability Scalable layers represent a different dynamic range and/or images obtained using a different tone mapping function and/or a different optical transfer function.
  • Chroma format scalability Base layer pictures provide lower spatial resolution in chroma sample arrays (e.g. coded in 4:2:0 chroma format) than enhancement layer pictures (e.g. 4:4:4 format).
  • enhancement layer pictures have a richer/broader color representation range than that of the base layer pictures - for example the enhancement layer may have UHDTV (ITU-R BT.2020) color gamut and the base layer may have the ITU-R BT.709 color gamut.
  • UHDTV ITU-R BT.2020
  • View scalability which may also be referred to as multiview coding.
  • the base layer represents a first view
  • an enhancement layer represents a second view.
  • a view may be defined as a sequence of pictures representing one camera or viewpoint. It may be considered that in stereoscopic or two-view video, one video sequence or view is presented for the left eye while a parallel view is presented for the right eye.
  • Depth scalability which may also be referred to as depth-enhanced coding.
  • a layer or some layers of a bitstream may represent texture view(s), while other layer or layers may represent depth view(s).
  • Interlaced-to-progressive scalability also known as field-to-frame scalability: coded interlaced source content material of the base layer is enhanced with an enhancement layer to represent progressive source content.
  • the coded interlaced source content in the base layer may comprise coded fields, coded frames representing field pairs, or a mixture of them.
  • the base-layer picture may be resampled so that it becomes a suitable reference picture for one or more enhancement-layer pictures.
  • Hybrid codec scalability also known as coding standard scalability:
  • base layer pictures are coded according to a different coding standard or format than enhancement layer pictures.
  • the base layer may be coded with
  • H.264/AVC and an enhancement layer may be coded with an HEVC multi-layer extension.
  • the term layer may be used in context of any type of scalability, including view scalability and depth enhancements.
  • An enhancement layer may refer to any type of an enhancement, such as SNR, spatial, multiview, depth, bit-depth, chroma format, and/or color gamut enhancement.
  • a base layer may refer to any type of a base video sequence, such as a base view, a base layer for SNR/spatial scalability, or a texture base view for depth-enhanced video coding.
  • Some scalable video coding schemes may require IRAP pictures to be aligned across layers in a manner that either all pictures in an access unit are IRAP pictures or no picture in an access unit is an IRAP picture.
  • Other scalable video coding schemes such as the multi-layer extensions of HEVC, may allow IRAP pictures that are not aligned, i.e. that one or more pictures in an access unit are IRAP pictures, while one or more other pictures in an access unit are not IRAP pictures.
  • Scalable bitstreams with IRAP pictures or similar that are not aligned across layers may be used for example for providing more frequent IRAP pictures in the base layer, where they may have a smaller coded size due to e.g. a smaller spatial resolution.
  • a process or mechanism for layer- wise start-up of the decoding may be included in a video decoding scheme.
  • Decoders may hence start decoding of a bitstream when a base layer contains an IRAP picture and step-wise start decoding other layers when they contain IRAP pictures.
  • decoders progressively increase the number of decoded layers (where layers may represent an enhancement in spatial resolution, quality level, views, additional components such as depth, or a combination) as subsequent pictures from additional enhancement layers are decoded in the decoding process.
  • the progressive increase of the number of decoded layers may be perceived for example as a progressive improvement of picture quality (in case of quality and spatial scalability).
  • a sender, a gateway, a client, or another entity may select the transmitted layers and/or sub-layers of a scalable video bitstream.
  • Terms layer extraction, extraction of layers, or layer down-switching may refer to transmitting fewer layers than what is available in the bitstream received by the sender, the gateway, the client, or another entity.
  • Layer up- switching may refer to transmitting additional layer(s) compared to those transmitted prior to the layer up-switching by the sender, the gateway, the client, or another entity, i.e. restarting the transmission of one or more layers whose transmission was ceased earlier in layer down- switching.
  • the sender, the gateway, the client, or another entity may perform down- and/or up-switching of temporal sub-layers.
  • the sender, the gateway, the client, or another entity may also perform both layer and sublayer down-switching and/or up-switching.
  • Layer and sub-layer down-switching and/or up- switching may be carried out in the same access unit or alike (i.e. virtually simultaneously) or may be carried out in different access units or alike (i.e. virtually at distinct times).
  • Scalability may be enabled in two basic ways. Either by introducing new coding modes for performing prediction of pixel values or syntax from lower layers of the scalable representation or by placing the lower layer pictures to a reference picture buffer (e.g. a decoded picture buffer, DPB) of the higher layer.
  • the first approach may be more flexible and thus may provide better coding efficiency in most cases.
  • the second, reference frame based scalability, approach may be implemented efficiently with minimal changes to single layer codecs while still achieving majority of the coding efficiency gains available.
  • a reference frame based scalability codec may be implemented by utilizing the same hardware or software implementation for all the layers, just taking care of the DPB management by external means.
  • a scalable video encoder for quality scalability also known as Signal-to-Noise or SNR
  • SNR Signal-to-Noise
  • spatial scalability may be implemented as follows.
  • a base layer a conventional non-scalable video encoder and decoder may be used.
  • the reconstructed/decoded pictures of the base layer are included in the reference picture buffer and/or reference picture lists for an enhancement layer.
  • the reconstructed/decoded base-layer picture may be upsampled prior to its insertion into the reference picture lists for an enhancement-layer picture.
  • the base layer decoded pictures may be inserted into a reference picture list(s) for coding/decoding of an enhancement layer picture similarly to the decoded reference pictures of the enhancement layer. Consequently, the encoder may choose a base-layer reference picture as an inter prediction reference and indicate its use with a reference picture index in the coded bitstream.
  • the decoder decodes from the bitstream, for example from a reference picture index, that a base-layer picture is used as an inter prediction reference for the enhancement layer.
  • a base-layer picture is used as an inter prediction reference for the enhancement layer.
  • a second enhancement layer may depend on a first enhancement layer in encoding and/or decoding processes, and the first enhancement layer may therefore be regarded as the base layer for the encoding and/or decoding of the second enhancement layer.
  • inter-layer reference pictures from more than one layer in a reference picture buffer or reference picture lists of an enhancement layer, and each of these inter-layer reference pictures may be considered to reside in a base layer or a reference layer for the enhancement layer being encoded and/or decoded.
  • bit-depth of the samples of the reference- layer picture may be converted to the bit-depth of the enhancement layer and/or the sample values may undergo a mapping from the color space of the reference layer to the color space of the enhancement layer.
  • a scalable video coding and/or decoding scheme may use multi-loop coding and/or decoding, which may be characterized as follows.
  • a base layer picture may be reconstructed/decoded to be used as a motion-compensation reference picture for subsequent pictures, in coding/decoding order, within the same layer or as a reference for inter-layer (or inter-view or inter-component) prediction.
  • the reconstructed/decoded base layer picture may be stored in the DPB.
  • An enhancement layer picture may likewise be reconstructed/decoded to be used as a motion-compensation reference picture for subsequent pictures, in coding/decoding order, within the same layer or as reference for inter-layer (or inter-view or inter-component) prediction for higher enhancement layers, if any.
  • syntax element values of the base/reference layer or variables derived from the syntax element values of the base/reference layer may be used in the inter-layer/inter-component/inter-view prediction.
  • Inter- layer prediction may be defined as prediction in a manner that is dependent on data elements (e.g., sample values or motion vectors) of reference pictures from a different layer than the layer of the current picture (being encoded or decoded).
  • data elements e.g., sample values or motion vectors
  • the available types of inter-layer prediction may for example depend on the coding profile according to which the bitstream or a particular layer within the bitstream is being encoded or, when decoding, the coding profile that the bitstream or a particular layer within the bitstream is indicated to conform to.
  • the available types of inter-layer prediction may depend on the types of scalability or the type of an scalable codec or video coding standard amendment (e.g. SHVC, MV-HEVC, or 3D-HEVC) being used.
  • a direct reference layer may be defined as a layer that may be used for inter- layer prediction of another layer for which the layer is the direct reference layer.
  • a direct predicted layer may be defined as a layer for which another layer is a direct reference layer.
  • An indirect reference layer may be defined as a layer that is not a direct reference layer of a second layer but is a direct reference layer of a third layer that is a direct reference layer or indirect reference layer of a direct reference layer of the second layer for which the layer is the indirect reference layer.
  • An indirect predicted layer may be defined as a layer for which another layer is an indirect reference layer.
  • An independent layer may be defined as a layer that does not have direct reference layers. In other words, an independent layer is not predicted using inter-layer prediction.
  • a non-base layer may be defined as any other layer than the base layer, and the base layer may be defined as the lowest layer in the bitstream.
  • An independent non-base layer may be defined as a layer that is both an independent layer and a non-base layer.
  • inter-view reference pictures can be included in the reference picture list(s) of the current picture being coded or decoded.
  • SHVC uses multiloop decoding operation (unlike the SVC extension of H.264/AVC).
  • SHVC may be considered to use a reference index based approach, i.e. an inter-layer reference picture can be included in a one or more reference picture lists of the current picture being coded or decoded (as described above).
  • the concepts and coding tools of HEVC base layer may be used in SHVC, MV-HEVC, and/or alike.
  • the additional inter-layer prediction tools which employ already coded data (including reconstructed picture samples and motion parameters a.k.a motion information) in reference layer for efficiently coding an enhancement layer, may be integrated to SHVC, MV-HEVC, and/or alike codec.
  • a constituent picture may be defined as such part of an enclosing (de)coded picture that corresponds to a representation of an entire input picture.
  • the enclosing (de)coded picture may comprise other data, such as another constituent picture.
  • Frame packing may be defined to comprise arranging more than one input picture, which may be referred to as (input) constituent frames or constituent pictures, into an output picture.
  • frame packing is not limited to any particular type of constituent frames or the constituent frames need not have a particular relation with each other.
  • frame packing is used for arranging constituent frames of a stereoscopic video clip into a single picture sequence.
  • the arranging may include placing the input pictures in spatially non- overlapping areas within the output picture. For example, in a side-by-side arrangement, two input pictures are placed within an output picture horizontally adjacently to each other.
  • the arranging may also include partitioning of one or more input pictures into two or more constituent frame partitions and placing the constituent frame partitions in spatially non- overlapping areas within the output picture.
  • the output picture or a sequence of frame-packed output pictures may be encoded into a bitstream e.g. by a video encoder.
  • the bitstream may be decoded e.g. by a video decoder.
  • the decoder or a post-processing operation after decoding may extract the decoded constituent frames from the decoded picture(s) e.g. for displaying.
  • Terms 360-degree video or virtual reality (VR) video may be used interchangeably.
  • VR video may be viewed on a head-mounted display (HMD) that may be capable of displaying e.g. about 100-degree field of view.
  • the spatial subset of the VR video content to be displayed may be selected based on the orientation of the HMD.
  • a typical flat-panel viewing environment is assumed, wherein e.g. up to 40-degree field-of-view may be displayed.
  • wide-FOV content e.g. fisheye
  • 360-degree image or video content may be acquired and prepared for example as follows. Images or video can be captured by a set of cameras or a camera device with multiple lenses and sensors. The acquisition results in a set of digital image/video signals. The cameras/lenses typically cover all directions around the center point of the camera set or camera device. The images of the same time instance are stitched, projected, and mapped onto a packed VR frame. The breakdown of image stitching, projection, and mapping process is illustrated with Figure 5 and described as follows. Input images are stitched and projected onto a three-dimensional projection structure, such as a sphere or a cube. The projection structure may be considered to comprise one or more surfaces, such as plane(s) or part(s) thereof.
  • a projection structure may be defined as three-dimensional structure consisting of one or more surface(s) on which the captured VR image/video content is projected, and from which a respective projected frame can be formed.
  • the image data on the projection structure is further arranged onto a two-dimensional projected frame.
  • projection may be defined as a process by which a set of input images are projected onto a projected frame.
  • representation formats of the projected frame including for example an equirectangular panorama and a cube map representation format.
  • Region- wise mapping (a.k.a. region- wise packing) may be applied to map projected frame onto one or more packed VR frames (a.k.a. packed pictures).
  • region- wise mapping may be understood to be equivalent to extracting two or more regions (a.k.a. projected regions) from the projected frame, optionally applying a geometric transformation (such as rotating, mirroring, and/or resampling) to the regions, and placing the transformed regions (a.k.a. packed regions) in spatially non-overlapping areas within the packed VR frame. If the region- wise mapping is not applied, the packed VR frame is identical to the projected frame. Otherwise, regions of the projected frame are mapped onto a packed VR frame by indicating the location, shape, and size of each region in the packed VR frame.
  • mapping may be defined as a process by which a projected frame is mapped to a packed VR frame.
  • packed VR frame may be defined as a frame that results from a mapping of a projected frame.
  • the input images may be converted to a packed VR frame in one process without intermediate steps.
  • Region-wise packing information may be encoded as metadata in or along the bitstream, for example as region-wise packing SEI message(s) and/or as region-wise packing boxes in a file containing the bitstream.
  • the packing information may comprise a region- wise mapping from a pre-defined or indicated source format to the packed frame format, e.g. from a projected frame to a packed VR frame, as described earlier.
  • the region- wise mapping information may for example comprise for each mapped region a source rectangle (i.e., a projected region) in the projected frame and a destination rectangle (i.e., a packed region) in the packed VR frame, where samples within the source rectangle are mapped to the destination rectangle and rectangles may for example be indicated by the locations of the top-left corner and the bottom-right corner.
  • the mapping may comprise resampling.
  • the packing information may comprise one or more of the following: the orientation of the three-dimensional projection structure relative to a coordinate system, indication which VR projection format is used, region- wise quality ranking indicating the picture quality ranking between regions and/or first and second spatial region sequences, one or more transformation operations, such as rotation by 90, 180, or 270 degrees, horizontal mirroring, and vertical mirroring.
  • the semantics of packing information may be specified in a manner that they are indicative for each sample location within packed regions of a decoded picture which is the respective spherical coordinate location.
  • 360-degree panoramic content i.e., images and video
  • the vertical field-of-view may vary and can be e.g. 180 degrees.
  • Panoramic image covering 360-degree field-of-view horizontally and 180-degree field-of-view vertically can be represented by a sphere that can be mapped to a bounding cylinder that can be cut vertically to form a 2D picture (this type of projection is known as equirectangular projection).
  • This type of projection is known as equirectangular projection.
  • the process of forming a monoscopic equirectangular panorama picture is illustrated in Figure 6.
  • a set of input images such as fisheye images of a camera array or a camera device with multiple lenses and sensors, is stitched onto a spherical image.
  • the spherical image is further projected onto a cylinder (without the top and bottom faces).
  • the cylinder is unfolded to form a two- dimensional projected frame.
  • one or more of the presented steps may be merged; for example, the input images may be directly projected onto a cylinder without an intermediate projection onto a sphere.
  • the projection structure for equirectangular panorama may be considered to be a cylinder that comprises a single surface.
  • 360-degree content can be mapped onto different types of solid geometrical structures, such as polyhedron (i.e. a three-dimensional solid object containing flat polygonal faces, straight edges and sharp corners or vertices, e.g., a cube or a pyramid), cylinder (by projecting a spherical image onto the cylinder, as described above with the equirectangular projection), cylinder (directly without projecting onto a sphere first), cone, etc. and then unwrapped to a two-dimensional image plane.
  • polyhedron i.e. a three-dimensional solid object containing flat polygonal faces, straight edges and sharp corners or vertices, e.g., a cube or a pyramid
  • cylinder by projecting a spherical image onto the cylinder, as described above with the equirectangular projection
  • cylinder directly without projecting onto a sphere first
  • cone etc. and then unwrapped to a two-dimensional image plane.
  • panoramic content with 360-degree horizontal field-of-view but with less than 180-degree vertical field-of-view may be considered special cases of panoramic projection, where the polar areas of the sphere have not been mapped onto the two- dimensional image plane.
  • a panoramic image may have less than 360-degree horizontal field-of-view and up to 180-degree vertical field-of-view, while otherwise has the characteristics of panoramic projection format.
  • HHFoV horizontal and vertical FoVs
  • DHFoV horizontal and vertical directions
  • a video rendered by an application on a HMD renders a portion of the 360 degrees video. This portion is defined here as Viewport.
  • a viewport is a window on the 360 world represented in the omnidirectional video displayed via a rendering display.
  • a viewport is characterized by horizontal and vertical FoVs (VHFoV, WFoV). In the following, VHFoV and WFoV will be simply abbreviated with HFoV and VFoV.
  • a viewport size may correspond to the HMD FoV or may have a smaller size, depending on the application.
  • a multi-layer bitstream such as a layered HEVC bitstream
  • a file such as an ISOBMFF file
  • it may be allowed to store of one or more layers into a track.
  • a content provider wants to provide a multi-layer bitstream that is not intended for subsetting, or when the bitstream has been created for a few pre-defined sets of output layers where each layer corresponds to a view (such as 1, 2, 5, or 9 views), tracks can be created accordingly.
  • a bitstream with multiple sub-layers such as an HEVC bitstream with multiple sub-layers
  • a file such as an ISOBMFF file
  • it may be allowed to store of one or more sub-layers into a track and more than one track may be used to contain the bitstream.
  • a track may contain only certain sub-layers and need not contain the lowest sub- layer (e.g. the sub- layer with Temporalld equal to 0 in HEVC).
  • Extractors specified in ISO/IEC 14496- 15 for H.264/AVC and HEVC enable compact formation of tracks that extract NAL unit data by reference.
  • An extractor is a NAL- unit-like structure.
  • a NAL-unit-like structure may be specified to comprise a NAL unit header and NAL unit payload like any NAL units, but start code emulation prevention (that is required for a NAL unit) might not be followed in a NAL-unit-like structure.
  • an extractor contains one or more constructors.
  • a sample constructor extracts, by reference, NAL unit data from a sample of another track.
  • An in-line constructor includes NAL unit data.
  • Nested extraction may be disallowed, e.g. the bytes referred to by a sample constructor shall not contain extractors; an extractor shall not reference, directly or indirectly, another extractor.
  • An extractor may contain one or more constructors for extracting data from the current track or from another track that is linked to the track in which the extractor resides by means of a track reference of type 'seal'.
  • the bytes of a resolved extractor may represent one or more entire NAL units. A resolved extractor starts with a valid length field and a NAL unit header.
  • the bytes of a sample constructor are copied only from the single identified sample in the track referenced through the indicated 'seal' track reference.
  • the alignment is on decoding time, i.e. using the time-to-sample table only, followed by a counted offset in sample number.
  • An extractor track may be defined as a track that contains one or more extractors.
  • a tile track specified in ISO/IEC 14496-15 enables storage of one or more temporal motion-constrained tile set as a track.
  • the sample entry type 'hvtl' is used.
  • the sample entry type 'lhtl' is used.
  • a sample of a tile track consists of one or more complete tiles in one or more complete slice segments.
  • a tile track is independent from any other tile track that includes VCL NAL units of the same layer as this tile track.
  • a tile track has a 'tbas' track reference to a tile base track. The tile base track does not include VCL NAL units.
  • a tile base track indicates the tile ordering using a 'sabt' track reference to the tile tracks.
  • An HEVC coded picture corresponding to a sample in the tile base track can be reconstructed by collecting the coded data from the time-aligned samples of the tracks indicated by the 'sabt' track reference in the order of the track references.
  • bitstream ⁇ is a tile set ⁇ track
  • optionB ⁇ illustrates alternatives, i.e. either optionA or optionB, which is selected consistently in all selections.
  • a full-picture-compliant tile set track can be played as with any full-picture track using the parsing and decoding process of full-picture tracks.
  • a full-picture-compliant bitstream can be decoded as with any full-picture bitstream using the decoding process of full- picture bitstreams.
  • a full-picture track is a track representing an original bitstream (including all its tiles).
  • a tile set bitstream is a bitstream that contains a tile set of an original bitstream but not representing the entire original bitstream.
  • a tile set track is a track representing a tile set of an original bitstream but not representing the entire original bitstream.
  • a full-picture-compliant tile set track may comprise extractors as defined for HEVC.
  • An extractor may for example an in-line constructor including a slice segment header and a sample constructor extracting coded video data for a tile set from a referenced full- picture track.
  • a sub-picture may be defined as a region, such as a tile or a tile rectangle, of a picture.
  • a sub-picture track may be defined as a track that represents a sub-picture sequence, i.e. a region of a picture sequence and conforms to the a conventional track format, such as 'hvcl' or 'hevl' defined for HEVC in ISO/IEC 14496-15.
  • a source picture sequence is split into sub-picture sequences before encoding.
  • a sub-picture sequence is then encoded independently from other sub-picture sequences as a single-layer bitstream, such as HEVC Main profile bitstream.
  • the coded single-layer bitstream is encapsulated into a sub-picture track.
  • the bitstream for a sub-picture track may be encoded with motion-constrained pictures, as defined later.
  • a source picture sequence is encoded with motion-constrained tile sets into a bitstream, a full-picture-compliant tile set bitstream is generated from the bitstream, and a sub-picture track is generated by encapsulating the full-picture-compliant tile set bitstream into a track.
  • Sub-picture tracks generated this way comprise motion-constrained pictures.
  • a collector track may be defined as a track that extracts implicitly or explicitly MCTSs or sub-pictures from other tracks.
  • a collector track may be a full-picture-compliant track.
  • a collector track may for example extract MCTSs or sub-pictures to form a coded picture sequence where MCTSs or sub-pictures are arranged to a grid. For example, when a collector track extracts two MCTSs or sub-pictures, they may be arranged into a 2x1 grid of MCTSs or sub-pictures.
  • a tile base track may be regarded as a collector track, and an extractor track that extracts MCTSs or sub-pictures from other tracks may be regarded as a collector track.
  • a collector track may also be referred to as a collection track.
  • a track that is a source for extracting to a a collector track may be referred to as a collection item track.
  • Inter- view prediction can provide a significant compression gain for stereoscopic and multiview video coding but is conventionally supported only in some profiles of video coding standards, such as the Multiview Main profile of HEVC.
  • constrained inter- view prediction the encoding of stereoscopic or multiview video is constrained in a manner that the coded content can be rewritten so that one or more single-layer and single- view decoders can be used, such as HEVC Main profile decoder(s).
  • Only a limited subset of pictures, such as IRAP pictures of HEVC, of an independent view may be selected to be used as reference pictures in encoding a predicted view.
  • a single-layer and single- view bitstream may be generated for the predicted view by including the limited subset of pictures of the independent view into the bitstream of the predicted view.
  • Rewriting of high-level syntax structures, such as parameter sets and slice headers, may be required when generating the single-layer and single- view bitstream of the predicted view.
  • Full-picture-compliant tracks may be generated to guide in the rewriting, and may comprise extractors to include coded picture data of the limited subset of the independent view and may comprise in-line constructors for rewriting high-level syntax structures.
  • the rewriting of the predicted view bitstream can be performed by resolving the full-picture-compliant tracks, i.e. by resolving extractors and in-line constructors therein.
  • a uniform resource identifier may be defined as a string of characters used to identify a name of a resource. Such identification enables interaction with representations of the resource over a network, using specific protocols.
  • a URI is defined through a scheme specifying a concrete syntax and associated protocol for the URI.
  • the uniform resource locator (URL) and the uniform resource name (URN) are forms of URI.
  • a URL may be defined as a URI that identifies a web resource and specifies the means of acting upon or obtaining the representation of the resource, specifying both its primary access mechanism and network location.
  • a URN may be defined as a URI that identifies a resource by name in a particular namespace. A URN may be used for identifying a resource without implying its location or how to access it.
  • Many video communication or transmission systems, transport mechanisms, and multimedia container file formats provide means to associate coded data of separate logical channels, such as of different tracks or sessions, with each other. For example, there are mechanisms to associate coded data of the same access unit together. For example, decoding or output times may be provided in the container file format or transport mechanism, and coded data with the same decoding or output time may be considered to form an access unit.
  • HTTP Hypertext Transfer Protocol
  • RTP Real-time Transport Protocol
  • UDP User Datagram Protocol
  • HTTP is easy to configure and is typically granted traversal of firewalls and network address translators (NAT), which makes it attractive for multimedia streaming applications.
  • Adaptive HTTP streaming was first standardized in Release 9 of 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) packet-switched streaming (PSS) service (3GPP TS 26.234 Release 9: "Transparent end-to-end packet-switched streaming service (PSS); protocols and codecs").
  • 3GPP 3rd Generation Partnership Project
  • PSS packet-switched streaming
  • MPEG took 3 GPP AHS Release 9 as a starting point for the MPEG DASH standard (ISO/IEC 23009-1 : "Dynamic adaptive streaming over HTTP (DASH)-Part 1 : Media presentation description and segment formats," International Standard, 2 nd Edition, , 2014).
  • 3 GPP continued to work on adaptive HTTP streaming in communication with MPEG and published 3GP-DASH (Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP; 3 GPP TS 26.247:
  • DASH Transparent end-to-end packet-switched streaming Service (PSS); Progressive download and dynamic adaptive Streaming over HTTP (3GP-DASH)
  • PSS Packet End-to-end packet-switched streaming Service
  • 3GP-DASH Progressive download and dynamic adaptive Streaming over HTTP
  • MPEG DASH and 3GP-DASH are technically close to each other and may therefore be collectively referred to as DASH.
  • Some concepts, formats, and operations of DASH are described below as an example of a video streaming system, wherein the embodiments may be implemented.
  • the aspects of the invention are not limited to DASH, but rather the description is given for one possible basis on top of which the invention may be partly or fully realized.
  • the multimedia content may be stored on an HTTP server and may be delivered using HTTP.
  • the content may be stored on the server in two parts: Media Presentation Description (MPD), which describes a manifest of the available content, its various alternatives, their URL addresses, and other characteristics; and segments, which contain the actual multimedia bitstreams in the form of chunks, in a single or multiple files.
  • MPD Media Presentation Description
  • the MDP provides the necessary information for clients to establish a dynamic adaptive streaming over HTTP.
  • the MPD contains information describing media presentation, such as an HTTP- uniform resource locator (URL) of each Segment to make GET Segment request.
  • URL HTTP- uniform resource locator
  • the DASH client may obtain the MPD e.g. by using HTTP, email, thumb drive, broadcast, or other transport methods.
  • the DASH client may become aware of the program timing, media-content availability, media types, resolutions, minimum and maximum bandwidths, and the existence of various encoded alternatives of multimedia components, accessibility features and required digital rights management (DRM), media-component locations on the network, and other content characteristics. Using this information, the DASH client may select the appropriate encoded alternative and start streaming the content by fetching the segments using e.g. HTTP GET requests. After appropriate buffering to allow for network throughput variations, the client may continue fetching the subsequent segments and also monitor the network bandwidth fluctuations. The client may decide how to adapt to the available bandwidth by fetching segments of different alternatives (with lower or higher bitrates) to maintain an adequate buffer.
  • DRM digital rights management
  • a media presentation consists of a sequence of one or more Periods, each Period contains one or more Groups, each Group contains one or more Adaptation Sets, each Adaptation Sets contains one or more Representations, each Representation consists of one or more Segments.
  • a Representation is one of the alternative choices of the media content or a subset thereof typically differing by the encoding choice, e.g. by bitrate, resolution, language, codec, etc.
  • the Segment contains certain duration of media data, and metadata to decode and present the included media content.
  • a Segment is identified by a URI and can typically be requested by a HTTP GET request.
  • a Segment may be defined as a unit of data associated with an HTTP-URL and optionally a byte range that are specified by an MPD.
  • the DASH MPD complies with Extensible Markup Language (XML) and is therefore specified through elements and attribute as defined in XML.
  • the MPD may be specified using the following conventions: Elements in an XML document may be identified by an upper-case first letter and may appear in bold face as Element. To express that an element Elementl is contained in another element Element2, one may write
  • Element2.Elementl If an element's name consists of two or more combined words, camel- casing may be used, e.g. ImportantElement. Elements may be present either exactly once, or the minimum and maximum occurrence may be defined by ⁇ minOccurs> ... ⁇ maxOccurs>. Attributes in an XML document may be identified by a lower-case first letter as well as they may be preceded by a '@'-sign, e.g. @attribute. To point to a specific attribute @attribute contained in an element Element, one may write Element@attribute. If an attribute's name consists of two or more combined words, camel-casing may be used after the first word, e.g. @veryImportant Attribute. Attributes may have assigned a status in the XML as mandatory (M), optional (O), optional with default value (OD) and conditionally mandatory (CM).
  • M mandatory
  • O optional
  • OD optional with default value
  • a DASH service may be provided as on-demand service or live service.
  • the MPD is a static and all Segments of a Media Presentation are already available when a content provider publishes an MPD.
  • the MPD may be static or dynamic depending on the Segment URLs construction method employed by a MPD and Segments are created continuously as the content is produced and published to DASH clients by a content provider.
  • Segment URLs construction method may be either template-based Segment URLs construction method or the Segment list generation method.
  • a DASH client is able to construct Segment URLs without updating an MPD before requesting a Segment.
  • a DASH client has to periodically download the updated MPDs to get Segment URLs.
  • the template-based Segment URLs construction method is superior to the Segment list generation method.
  • a media content component or a media component may be defined as one continuous component of the media content with an assigned media component type that can be encoded individually into a media stream.
  • Media content may be defined as one media content period or a contiguous sequence of media content periods.
  • Media content component type may be defined as a single type of media content such as audio, video, or text.
  • a media stream may be defined as an encoded version of a media content component.
  • An Initialization Segment may be defined as a Segment containing metadata that is necessary to present the media streams encapsulated in Media Segments.
  • an Initialization Segment may comprise the Movie Box ('moov') which might not include metadata for any samples, i.e. any metadata for samples is provided in 'moof boxes.
  • a Media Segment contains certain duration of media data for playback at a normal speed, such duration is referred as Media Segment duration or Segment duration.
  • the content producer or service provider may select the Segment duration according to the desired characteristics of the service. For example, a relatively short Segment duration may be used in a live service to achieve a short end-to-end latency. The reason is that Segment duration is typically a lower bound on the end-to-end latency perceived by a DASH client since a Segment is a discrete unit of generating media data for DASH. Content generation is typically done such a manner that a whole Segment of media data is made available for a server.
  • a Segment as the unit for GET requests.
  • a Segment can be requested by a DASH client only when the whole duration of Media Segment is available as well as encoded and encapsulated into a Segment.
  • different strategies of selecting Segment duration may be used.
  • a Segment may be further partitioned into Subsegments e.g. to enable downloading segments in multiple parts.
  • Subsegments may be required to contain complete access units.
  • Subsegments may be indexed by Segment Index box, which contains information to map presentation time range and byte range for each Subsegment.
  • the Segment Index box may also describe subsegments and stream access points in the segment by signaling their durations and byte offsets.
  • a DASH client may use the information obtained from Segment Index box(es) to make a HTTP GET request for a specific Subsegment using byte range HTTP request. If relatively long Segment duration is used, then Subsegments may be used to keep the size of HTTP responses reasonable and flexible for bitrate adaptation.
  • the indexing information of a segment may be put in the single box at the beginning of that segment, or spread among many indexing boxes in the segment. Different methods of spreading are possible, such as hierarchical, daisy chain, and hybrid. This technique may avoid adding a large box at the beginning of the segment and therefore may prevent a possible initial download delay.
  • the notation (Sub)segment refers to either a Segment or a Subsegment. If Segment Index boxes are not present, the notation (Sub)segment refers to a Segment. If Segment Index boxes are present, the notation (Sub)segment may refer to a Segment or a Subsegment, e.g. depending on whether the client issues requests on Segment or Subsegment basis.
  • Segments may be defined to be non-overlapping as follows: Let T E (S ) be the earliest presentation time of any access unit in stream i of a
  • T L (S ) be the latest presentation time of any access unit in stream i of a Segment or Subsegment S.
  • Two segments (respectively Subsegments), A and B, which may or may not be of different Representations, may be defined to be non-overlapping, when T ⁇ (A ) ⁇ T E (B ) for all media streams i in A and B or if T L (B, I) ⁇ ⁇ ⁇ ( ⁇ , ⁇ ) for all streams i in A and B where i refers to the same media component.
  • MPEG-DASH defines segment-container formats for both ISO Base Media File Format and MPEG-2 Transport Streams. Other specifications may specify segment formats based on other container formats. For example, a segment format based on Matroska container file format has been proposed and may be summarized as follows. When Matroska files are carried as DASH segments or alike, the association of DASH units and Matroska units may be specified as follows. A subsegment (of DASH) may be are defined as one or more consecutive Clusters of Matroska-encapsulated content. An Initialization Segment of DASH may be required to comprise the EBML header, Segment header (of Matroska),
  • Segment Information (of Matroska) and Tracks, and may optionally comprise other level 1 elements and padding.
  • a Segment Index of DASH may comprise a Cues Element of
  • DASH specifies different timelines including Media Presentation timeline and Segment availability times.
  • the former indicates the presentation time of access unit with a media content which is mapped to the global common presentation timeline.
  • Presentation timeline enables DASH to seamlessly synchronize different media components which is encoded with different coding techniques and shares a common timeline.
  • the latter indicates a wall-clock time and is used to signal clients the availability time of Segments which is identified by HTTP URLs.
  • a DASH client is able to identify an availability time of a certain Segment by comparing the wall-clock time to the Segment availability time assigned to that Segment. Segment availability time plays a key role in live delivery of media
  • Segments referred as live service.
  • live service the Segment availability time is different from Segment to Segment and a certain Segment's availability time depends on the position of the Segment in the Media Presentation timeline.
  • on-demand service the Segment availability time is typically the same for all Segments.
  • DASH supports rate adaptation by dynamically requesting Media Segments from different Representations within an Adaptation Set to match varying network bandwidth. Switching between Representations of different bitrates may be used for example to match the transmitted bitrate to the expected network throughput and/or to avoid congestion in the network.
  • a DASH client switches up/down Representation, coding dependencies within Representation have to be taken into account. Conventionally, a Representation switch may only happen at a random access point (RAP), which is typically used in video coding techniques such as H.264/AVC.
  • RAP random access point
  • SAP Stream Access Point
  • a SAP is specified as a position in a Representation that enables playback of a media stream to be started using only the information contained in Representation data starting from that position onwards
  • SAP Type 1 corresponds to what is known in some coding schemes as a "Closed GOP random access point" (in which all pictures, in decoding order, can be correctly decoded, resulting in a continuous time sequence of correctly decoded pictures with no gaps) and in addition the first picture in decoding order is also the first picture in presentation order.
  • SAP Type 2 corresponds to what is known in some coding schemes as a "Closed GOP random access point" (in which all pictures, in decoding order, can be correctly decoded, resulting in a continuous time sequence of correctly decoded pictures with no gaps), for which the first picture in decoding order may not be the first picture in presentation order.
  • SAP Type 3 corresponds to what is known in some coding schemes as an "Open GOP random access point", in which there may be some pictures in decoding order that cannot be correctly decoded and have presentation times less than intra-coded picture associated with the SAP. [0190] A content provider may create Segment and Subsegment of multiple
  • each Segment and Subsegment starts with a SAP and the boundaries of Segment and Subsegment are aligned across the Representation of an Adaptation Set.
  • a DASH client is able to switch Representations without error drift by requesting Segments or Subsegments from an original Representation to a new Representation.
  • Subsegment are specified in MPD and Segment Index in order to facilitate a DASH client to switch Representations without introducing an error drift.
  • One of the usages of profile specified in DASH is to provide different levels of restrictions to construct Segments and Subsegments.
  • the draft MPEG-DASH specification includes that feature of Segment Independent SAP Signaling (SISSI), which enables signaling of Segments starting with SAP having uneven durations.
  • SISSI Segment Independent SAP Signaling
  • the draft MPEG-DASH specification defines SISSI signaling for switching within an Adaptation Set and across Adaptation Sets.
  • the switching refers to the presentation of decoded data from one Representation up to a certain time t, and presentation of decoded data of another Representation from time t onwards. If Representations are included in one Adaptation Set, and the client switches properly, the Media Presentation is expected to be perceived seamless across the switch. Clients may ignore Representations that rely on codecs or other rendering technologies they do not support or that are otherwise unsuitable.
  • the Switching element as defined in Table 1 provides instructions of switch points within an Adaptation Set and the permitted switching options as defined in Table 2. This element may be used instead of the attributes @segmentAlignment or @bitstreamSwitching.
  • Table 2 defines different switching strategies that provide instructions to the client on the procedures to switch appropriately within an Adaptation Set. [0196] Table 2— Switching Strategies
  • Random Access may refer to start processing, decoding and presenting the Representation from the random access point at time t onwards by initializing the
  • Random Access point may be signaled with the RandomAccess element as defined in Table 3.
  • @type OD specifies the random access strategy for the random access points in by the @interval default: attribute.
  • the value uses a type present in Table 4.
  • the DASH client is expected to ignore the containing Random Access element.
  • @minBufferTime 0 specifies a common duration used in the definition of the Representation data rate (using the @bandwidth attribute).
  • the value of the MPD level is inherited.
  • @minBufferTime * @bandwidth bits have been received i.e. at time @minBufferTime after the first bit is received.
  • this value specifies the bandwidth according to the above definition for the aggregation of this Representation and all complementary Representations .
  • SAP type 1 , 2 or 3 is a necessary condition, but not sufficient.
  • all requirements of a Random Access Segment need to be fulfilled.
  • SAP type 1 2, 3 or 4 is a necessary condition, but not sufficient.
  • all requirements of a Random Access Segment need to be fulfilled.
  • the DASH standard includes mechanisms to enable fast start-up of a media session.
  • the MPD may announce more than one representation, with different bitrates, in an Adaptation Set.
  • each segment and/or subsegment could start with a stream access point, where the pictures within the segment and/or subsegment are coded without referencing to any other picture from a different segment.
  • a DASH client may start with a lower bitrate representation in order to increase the buffer occupancy level quickly. Then the client may then switch to requesting segment(s) and/or subsegment(s) of a higher bit rate representation (which may have e.g. a higher spatial resolution than the representation received earlier).
  • the client may target to reach a certain buffer occupancy level, e.g. in terms of media duration, during the fast start-up and may target to keep the same or similar buffer occupancy level during the operation after a fast start-up phase.
  • the client may start media playback after initiating a media streaming session and/or after a random access operation only after a certain amount of media has been buffered. This amount of media may be equal to but need not relate to the buffer occupancy level that is targeted to be reached at fast start-up.
  • the fast start-up may enable the client to start the media playback faster than would be possible if only a higher bitrate representation would be consistently received after initiating a media streaming session and/or after a random access operation.
  • the client or player may request Segments or Subsegments to be transmitted from different representations similarly to how the transmitted layers and/or sub-layers of a scalable video bitstream may be determined.
  • Terms representation down- switching or bitstream down-switching may refer to requesting or transmitting a lower bitrate representation than what was requested or transmitted (respectively) previously.
  • Terms representation up-switching or bitstream up-switching may refer to requesting or transmitting a higher bitrate representation than what was requested or transmitted (respectively)
  • Terms representation switching or bitstream switching may refer collectively to representation or bitstream up- and down-switching and may also or alternatively cover switching of representations or bitstreams of different viewpoints.
  • all descriptor elements are structured in the same way, namely they contain a @schemeIdUri attribute that provides a URI to identify the scheme and an optional attribute @value and an optional attribute @id.
  • the semantics of the element are specific to the scheme employed.
  • the URI identifying the scheme may be a URN or a URL.
  • the MPD does not provide any specific information on how to use descriptor elements. It is up to the application or specification that employs DASH formats to instantiate the description elements with appropriate scheme information. Applications or specifications that use one of these elements define a Scheme Identifier in the form of a URI and the value space for the element when that Scheme Identifier is used. The Scheme Identifier appears in the @schemeIdUri attribute. In the case that a simple set of enumerated values are required, a text string may be defined for each value and this string may be included in the @value attribute. If structured data is required then any extension element or attribute may be defined in a separate namespace.
  • the @id value may be used to refer to a unique descriptor or to a group of descriptors. In the latter case, descriptors with identical values for the attribute @id may be required to be synonymous, i.e. the processing of one of the descriptors with an identical value for @id is sufficient.
  • an independent representation may be defined as a representation that can be processed independently of any other representations.
  • An independent representation may be understood to comprise an independent bitstream or an independent layer of a bitstream.
  • a dependent representation may be defined as a representation for which Segments from its complementary representations are necessary for presentation and/or decoding of the contained media content components.
  • a dependent representation may be understood to comprise e.g. a predicted layer of a scalable bitstream.
  • a complementary representation may be defined as a representation which complements at least one dependent representation.
  • a complementary representation may be an independent representation or a dependent representation.
  • Dependent Representations may be described by a Representation element that contains a @dependencyld attribute.
  • Dependent Representations can be regarded as regular Representations except that they depend on a set of complementary Representations for decoding and/or presentation.
  • the @dependencyld contains the values of the @id attribute of all the complementary Representations, i.e. Representations that are necessary to present and/or decode the media content components contained in this dependent
  • a DASH Preselection defines a subset of media components of an MPD that are expected to be consumed jointly by a single decoder instance, wherein consuming may comprise decoding and rendering.
  • the Adaptation Set that contains the main media component for a Preselection is referred to as main Adaptation Set.
  • Preselection may include one or multiple partial Adaptation Sets. Partial Adaptation Sets may need to be processed in combination with the main Adaptation Set. A main Adaptation Set and partial Adaptation Sets may be indicated by one of the two means: a preselection descriptor or a Preselection element.
  • Streaming systems similar to MPEG-DASH include for example HTTP Live Streaming (a.k.a. HLS), specified in the IETF RFC 8216.
  • HLS uses an extended M3U format.
  • M3U is a file format for multimedia playlists, originally developed for audio files.
  • An M3U Playlist is a text file that consists of individual lines, and each line is a URI, blank, or starts with the character '#' indicating a tag or a comment.
  • a URI line identifies a media segment or a Playlist file.
  • Tags begin with #EXT.
  • the HLS specification specifies a number of tags, which may be regarded as key- value pairs.
  • tags of HLS M3U8 files may be considered similar to Elements in MPD or XML, and attributes of HLS M3U8 files may be considered similar to Attributes in MPD or XML.
  • Media segments in HLS may be formatted according to the MPEG-2 Transport Stream and contain a single MPEG-2 Program. Each media segment is recommended to start with a Program Association Table (PAT) and a Program Map Table (PMT). Media segments in later versions of HLS may be compliant with ISOBMFF.
  • PAT Program Association Table
  • PMT Program Map Table
  • An encapsulated bitstream may be defined as a media bitstream, such as a video bitstream (e.g. an HEVC bitstream), that is stored in a container file or (Sub)segment(s) and may be considered to comprise the file format metadata, such as boxes of ISOBMFF.
  • a media bitstream such as a video bitstream (e.g. an HEVC bitstream)
  • HEVC bitstream e.g. an HEVC bitstream
  • Sub subsegment(s) and may be considered to comprise the file format metadata, such as boxes of ISOBMFF.
  • DASH and other similar streaming systems provide a protocol and/or formats for multimedia streaming applications, especially for multiview coded video bitstreams.
  • a recent trend in streaming in order to reduce the streaming bitrate of VR video is the following: a subset of 360-degree video content covering the primary viewport (i.e., the current view orientation) is transmitted at the best quality/resolution, while the remaining of 360-degree video is transmitted at a lower quality/resolution.
  • viewport-adaptive streaming There are generally two approaches for viewport-adaptive streaming: 1. Viewport-specific encoding and streaming, a.k.a. viewport-dependent encoding and streaming, a.k.a. asymmetric projection.
  • 360-degree image content is packed into the same frame with an emphasis (e.g. greater spatial area) on the primary viewport.
  • the packed VR frames are encoded into a single bitstream.
  • the front face of a cube map may be sampled with a higher resolution compared to other cube faces and the cube faces may be mapped to the same packed VR frame as shown in Figure 8, where the front cube face is sampled with twice the resolution compared to the other cube faces.
  • 360-degree content is encoded and made available in a manner that enables selective streaming of viewports from different encodings.
  • tile-based encoding and streaming which may be referred to as tile rectangle based encoding and streaming or sub-picture based encoding and streaming, may be used with any video codec, even if tiles similar to HEVC were not available in the codec or even if motion-constrained tile sets or alike were not implemented in an encoder.
  • tile rectangle based encoding the source content is split into tile rectangle sequences (a.k.a. sub- picture sequences) before encoding. Each tile rectangle sequence covers a subset of the spatial area of the source content, such as full panorama content, which may e.g. be of
  • Each tile rectangle sequence is then encoded independently from each other as a single-layer bitstream.
  • bitstreams may be encoded from the same tile rectangle sequence, e.g. for different bitrates.
  • Each tile rectangle bitstream may be encapsulated in a file as its own track (or alike) and made available for streaming.
  • the client may receive tracks covering the entire omnidirectional content. Better quality or higher resolution tracks may be received for the current viewport compared to the quality or resolution covering the remaining, currently non- visible viewports.
  • each track may be decoded with a separate decoder instance.
  • each cube face may be separately encoded and encapsulated in its own track (and Representation). More than one encoded bitstream for each cube face may be provided, e.g. each with different spatial resolution.
  • Players can choose tracks (or Representations) to be decoded and played based on the current viewing orientation. High-resolution tracks (or Representations) may be selected for the cube faces used for rendering for the present viewing orientation, while the remaining cube faces may be obtained from their low-resolution tracks (or Representations).
  • bitstream comprises motion-constrained tile sets.
  • bitstreams of the same source content are encoded using motion-constrained tile sets.
  • one or more motion-constrained tile set sequences are extracted from a bitstream, and each extracted motion-constrained tile set sequence is stored as a tile set track (e.g. an HEVC tile track or a full-picture-compliant tile set track) in a file.
  • a tile base track e.g. an HEVC tile base track or a full picture track comprising extractors to extract data from the tile set tracks
  • the tile base track represents the bitstream by implicitly collecting motion-constrained tile sets from the tile set tracks or by explicitly extracting (e.g. by HEVC extractors) motion-constrained tile sets from the tile set tracks.
  • Tile set tracks and the tile base track of each bitstream may be encapsulated in an own file, and the same track identifiers may be used in all files.
  • the tile set tracks to be streamed may be selected based on the viewing orientation.
  • the client may receive tile set tracks covering the entire omnidirectional content. Better quality or higher resolution tile set tracks may be received for the current viewport compared to the quality or resolution covering the remaining, currently non- visible viewports.
  • equirectangular panorama content is encoded using motion- constrained tile sets. More than one encoded bitstream may be provided, e.g. with different spatial resolution and/or picture quality. Each motion-constrained tile set is made available in its own track (and Representation). Players can choose tracks (or Representations) to be decoded and played based on the current viewing orientation. High-resolution or high-quality tracks (or Representations) may be selected for tile sets covering the present primary viewport, while the remaining area of the 360-degree content may be obtained from low- resolution or low-quality tracks (or Representations).
  • each received tile set track is decoded with a separate decoder or decoder instance.
  • a tile base track is utilized in decoding as follows. If all the received tile tracks originate from bitstreams of the same resolution (or more generally if the tile base tracks of the bitstreams are identical or equivalent, or if the initialization segments or other initialization data, such as parameter sets, of all the bitstreams is the same), a tile base track may be received and used to construct a bitstream. The constructed bitstream may be decoded with a single decoder. [0218] In yet another approach, a first set of tile rectangle tracks and/or tile set tracks may be merged into a first full-picture-compliant bitstream, and a second set of tile rectangle tracks and/or tile set tracks may be merged into a second full-picture-compliant bitstream.
  • the first full-picture-compliant bitstream may be decoded with a first decoder or decoder instance
  • the second full-picture-compliant bitstream may be decoded with a second decoder or decoder instance.
  • this approach is not limited to two sets of tile rectangle tracks and/or tile set tracks, two full-picture-compliant bitstreams, or two decoders or decoder instances, but applies to any number of them.
  • the client can control the number of parallel decoders or decoder instances.
  • clients that are not capable of decoding tile tracks e.g.
  • full-picture-compliant bitstreams can perform the merging in a manner that full-picture-compliant bitstreams are obtained.
  • the merging may be solely performed in the client or full-picture-compliant tile set tracks may be generated to assist in the merging performed by the client.
  • tile-based encoding and streaming may be realized by splitting a source picture in tile rectangle sequences that are partly overlapping.
  • bitstreams with motion-constrained tile sets may be generated from the same source content with different tile grids or tile set grids.
  • the 360 degrees space divided into a discrete set of viewports, each separate by a given distance (e.g., expressed in degrees), so that the omnidirectional space can be imagined as a map of overlapping viewports, and the primary viewport is switched discretely as the user changes his/her orientation while watching content with a HMD.
  • the viewports could be imagined as adjacent non-overlapping tiles within the 360 degrees space.
  • the primary viewport i.e., the current viewing orientation
  • the remaining of 360-degree video is transmitted at a lower quality/resolution.
  • the viewing orientation changes, e.g. when the user turns his/her head when viewing the content with a head-mounted display
  • another version of the content needs to be streamed, matching the new viewing orientation.
  • the new version can be requested starting from a stream access point (SAP), which are typically aligned with (Sub)segments.
  • SAPs are intra-coded and hence costly in terms of rate-distortion performance.
  • the delay (here referred to as the viewport quality update delay) in upgrading the quality after a viewing orientation change (e.g. a head turn) is conventionally in the order of seconds and is therefore clearly noticeable and annoying.
  • HEVC bitstreams with motion- constrained tile sets There are several alternatives to deliver the viewport-dependent omnidirectional video. It can be delivered, for example, as equal-resolution HEVC bitstreams with motion- constrained tile sets (MCTSs). Thus, several HEVC bitstreams of the same omnidirectional source content are encoded at the same resolution but different qualities and bitrates using motion-constrained tile sets.
  • the MCTS grid in all bitstreams is identical.
  • each bitstream is encapsulated in its own file, and the same track identifier is used for each tile track of the same tile grid position in all these files.
  • HEVC tile tracks are formed from each motion-constrained tile set sequence, and a tile base track is additionally formed.
  • the client parses tile base track to implicitly reconstruct a bitstream from the tile tracks.
  • the reconstructed bitstream can be decoded with a conforming HEVC decoder.
  • Clients can choose which version of each MCTS is received.
  • the same tile base track suffices for combining MCTSs from different bitstreams, since the same track identifiers are used in the respective tile tracks.
  • Figure 9a shows an example how tile tracks of the same resolution can be used for tile-based omnidirectional video streaming.
  • a 4x2 tile grid has been used in forming of the motion-constrained tile sets.
  • Two HEVC bitstreams originating from the same source content are encoded at different picture qualities and bitrates.
  • Each bitstream is encapsulated in its own file wherein each motion-constrained tile set sequence is included in one tile track and a tile base track is also included.
  • the client chooses the quality at which each tile track is received based on the viewing orientation. In this example the client receives tile tracks 1, 2, 5, and 6 at a particular quality and tile tracks 3, 4, 7, and 8 at another quality.
  • the tile base track is used to order the received tile track data into a bitstream that can be decoded with an HEVC decoder.
  • Another option to deliver the viewport-dependent omnidirectional video is to carry out SHVC region-of interest scalability encoding. Therein, the base layer is coded
  • region-of-interest (ROI) enhancement layers are encoded with SHVC Scalable Main profile. For example, several layers per each tile position can be coded, each for different bitrate or resolution.
  • the ROI enhancement layers may be spatial or quality scalability layers.
  • the base layer is always received and decoded. Additionally, enhancement layers (EL 1 , ... , ELN) selected on the basis of the current viewing orientation are received and decoded.
  • enhancement layers EL 1 , ... , ELN
  • Stream access points (SAPs) for the enhancement layers are inter-layer predicted from the base layer, and are hence more compact than similar SAPs realized with intra-coded pictures. Since the base layer is consistently received and decoded, the SAP interval for the base layer can be longer than that for ELs.
  • the SHVC ROI-based approach may also be implemented without inter-layer prediction, which is herein referred to as the no-ILP approach.
  • the SHVC ROI approach has the some disadvantages. Inter-layer prediction is enabled only in codec extensions, such as the SHVC extension of HEVC. Such codec extensions might not be commonly supported in decoding, particularly when
  • the SHVC ROI approach as well as the no-ILP approach significantly increase the decoding complexity compared to the MCTS-based approach.
  • the enhancement layer in the SHVC ROI approach and in the no-ILP approach typically covers 2x2 tiles of the grid, i.e. causing 50% decoding complexity increase.
  • CILP constrained inter-layer prediction
  • Figure 10 shows how the input picture sequence is encoded into two or more bitstreams, each representing the entire input picture sequence, i.e., the same input pictures are encoded in the bitstreams or a subset of the same input pictures, potentially with a reduced picture rate, are encoded in the bitstreams.
  • Certain input pictures are chosen to be encoded into two coded pictures in the same bitstream, the first referred to as a shared coded picture, and the two coded pictures may be referred to as a shared coded picture pair.
  • a shared coded picture is either intra coded or uses only other shared coded pictures (or the respective reconstructed pictures) as prediction references.
  • a shared coded picture in a first bitstream (of the encoded two or more bitstreams) is identical to the respective shared coded picture in a second bitstream (of the encoded two or more bitstreams), wherein "identical" may be defined to be identical coded representation, potentially excluding certain high-level syntax structures, such as SEI messages, and/or identical reconstructed picture. Any picture subsequent to a particular shared coded picture in decoding order is not predicted from any picture that precedes the particular shared coded picture and is not a shared coded picture.
  • a shared coded picture may be indicated to be a non-output picture.
  • the decoder does not output the reconstructed shared coded picture.
  • the encoding method facilitates decoding a first bitstream up to a selected shared coded picture, exclusive, and decoding a second bitstream starting from the respective shared coded picture. No intra-coded picture is required to start the decoding of the second bitstream, and consequently compression efficiency is improved compared to a conventional approach.
  • CILP enables the use of HEVC Main profile encoder and decoder, and hence has better compatibility with implementations than the SHVC ROI approach. Moreover, CILP takes advantage of relatively low intra picture frequency (similarly to the SHVC ROI approach). However, when compared to the SHVC ROI approach, CILP suffers from the use of MCTSs for the base-quality tiles. The streaming rate-distortion performance of CILP is close to that of SHVC-ROI in relatively coarse tile grids (up to 6x3). However, CILP has inferior streaming rate-distortion performance compared to SHVC-ROI when finer tile grids are used, presumably due to the use of MCTSs for the base quality.
  • the SHVC ROI and the CILP approaches have advantages over each other in different situations, but neither of them outperforms the other in all situations.
  • a more optimal method for enabling viewport-dependent delivery of omnidirectional video is desirable.
  • the method according to an aspect comprises encoding (1100) an input picture sequence into a first bitstream, said encoding comprising assigning (1102) a picture area to a first constituent picture area and a first tile area that are non- overlapping within the picture area; encoding (1104) a first input picture into a coded constituent picture of a first coded picture of the first bitstream, wherein the coded constituent picture occupies the first constituent picture area, and the first coded picture occupies the picture area, and wherein said encoding comprises reconstructing a reconstructed constituent picture corresponding to the coded constituent picture in the first bitstream; and encoding (1106) a first region of the first input picture into a first set of coded tiles, wherein the first set of coded tiles occupies the first tile area, and wherein said encoding comprises prediction using the coded or reconstructed constituent picture as a reference, and the first set of coded tiles is encoded into the first coded picture or into a second coded picture of the
  • the picture area comprises two parts: a constituent picture area (1200a, 1202a, 1204a), which is used to carry a base quality encoding, and a tile area (1200b, 1202b, 1204b), which is used to carry enhanced quality tiles.
  • a constituent picture area (1200a, 1202a, 1204a) which is used to carry a base quality encoding
  • a tile area (1200b, 1202b, 1204b) which is used to carry enhanced quality tiles.
  • certain input pictures may be encoded as two coded pictures.
  • the tile area 1200b may have a constant color, for example it may be blank (b).
  • the tile area 1202b may be predicted from the base-quality constituent picture 1200a of the first coded picture.
  • the constituent picture area 1202a of the second coded picture may have a constant color, for example it may be blank (b), or it may be coded with reference to the first coded picture 1200 with zero motion and without prediction error (referred to as "skip coded” here).
  • Two units such as the constituent picture area 1200a or the respective constituent picture and the tile area 1202b or the respective tiles, may be defined to be time-aligned when they originate from the same input picture.
  • At least one picture precedes in (de)coding order the first coded picture 1200 and comprises a constituent picture area similarly to pictures 1200, 1202, and 1204.
  • the tile area 1202b may be predicted from the base-quality constituent picture 1200a of the first coded picture and/or from the constituent picture area of any available reference picture.
  • the prediction reference of the tile area 1202b is constrained to be the base-quality constituent picture 1200a of the first coded picture, even if other reference pictures than the picture 1200 were available.
  • the first coded picture 1200 is an intra-coded picture and indicated to be a random access point in or along the bitstream.
  • a NAL unit type of an IRAP picture may be used in HEVC, and/or an SEI message, such as the recovery point SEI message of AVC or HEVC, may be included in the access unit containing the first coded picture 1200.
  • the second coded picture 1202 and all pictures following the first coded picture 1200 in both (de)coding order and output order are constrained not to use any picture preceding the first coded picture 1200 in output order as reference for prediction.
  • the encoding of first tile area is constrained such that no coded or reconstructed tiles that precede the first set of coded tiles in decoding order and occupy the first tile area are used as a reference for predicting the first set of coded tiles or any subsequent coded tiles in decoding order occupying the first tile area.
  • This constraint enables starting the decoding the set of enhanced quality tiles from the tiles of the tile area 1202b, when no enhanced quality tiles were decoded before or when enhanced quality tiles of a different bitstream were decoded before.
  • Enhanced quality tiles constrained like described in this embodiment can be regarded as random access point tiles or viewport switching tiles.
  • any inter prediction hierarchy may be used.
  • Motion constraints are applied to the constituent picture areas (1204a, %) and to the tile areas (1204b, %) as described in the following.
  • Encoding is performed in a manner that the constituent picture area (1204a,%) in the subsequent pictures (1204, ...) form a MCTS in one of the following ways or in any similar way:
  • Encoding is performed in a manner that the tile area (1204b, ...) in the subsequent pictures (1204, 7) comprises one or more MCTSs in one of the following ways or in any similar way:
  • Motion vectors that would cause the prediction process to have references across those boundaries of an MCTS that are not picture boundaries are avoided.
  • MCTS 1 in the tile area 1204b may be allowed to have motion vectors referring across the top boundary of the MCTS.
  • MCTS 1 in the tile area 1204b may be allowed to have motion vectors referring to the constituent picture area 1200a or to the MCTS 1 in the tile area 1202b.
  • MCTS motion-constrained tile set
  • the method according to the aspect shown in Figure 11 can be considered to relate to the illustration of Figure 12 as follows: It may be considered that depending on the context references 1200, 1202, and 1204 refer to either the picture area or the coded picture, references 1200a, 1202a, and 1204a refer to either the constituent picture area or the coded constituent picture, and references 1200b, 1202b, and 1024b refer to either the tile area or the set of coded tiles. It needs to be understood that the picture area and its partitioning to the constituent picture area and the tile area remain unchanged in the coded pictures 1200, 1202, and 1204.
  • the method comprises encoding (1100) an input picture sequence into a first bitstream that comprises coded pictures 1200, 1202, 1204.
  • the encoding comprises assigning (1102) a picture area (1200, 1202, or 1204) to a first constituent picture area (1200a, 1202a, or 1204a) and a first tile area (1200b, 1202b, or 1204b) that are non-overlapping within the picture area.
  • the method comprises encoding (1104) a first input picture into a coded constituent picture (1200a) of a first coded picture (1200) of the first bitstream, wherein the coded constituent picture (1200a) occupies the first constituent picture area, and the first coded picture (1200) occupies the picture area, and wherein said encoding comprises reconstructing a reconstructed constituent picture corresponding to the coded constituent picture in the first bitstream.
  • the method further comprises encoding (1106) a first region of the first input picture into a first set of coded tiles (1202b), wherein the first set of coded tiles occupies the first tile area, and wherein said encoding comprises prediction using the coded or reconstructed constituent picture as a reference, as indicated by the arrow from 1200a to tile 1 of 1202b in Figure 12.
  • the first set of coded tiles is encoded into the first coded picture (not illustrated in Figure 12 but in Figure 14) or into a second coded picture (1202) of the first bitstream, the second coded picture occupying the picture area.
  • the method further comprises encoding an input picture sequence into a second bitstream, said encoding comprising: encoding the first input picture into a coded constituent picture of a first coded picture of the second bitstream, wherein the coded constituent picture in the second bitstream occupies the first constituent picture area, and the first coded picture of the second bitstream occupies the picture area, and wherein said encoding comprises reconstructing a second reconstructed constituent picture corresponding to the coded constituent picture in the second bitstream, wherein the second reconstructed constituent picture is identical to the first reconstructed constituent picture; and encoding a second region of the first input picture into a second set of coded tiles, wherein the second set of coded tiles occupies the first tile area, and wherein said encoding comprises prediction using the coded constituent picture in the second bitstream or the second reconstructed constituent picture as a reference, and the second set of coded tiles is encoded into the first coded picture or into a second coded picture of the second bitstream, the second
  • the encoding of first tile area is constrained such that no coded or reconstructed tiles that precede the second set of coded tiles in decoding order and occupy the first tile area are used as a reference for predicting the second set of coded tiles or any subsequent coded tiles in decoding order occupying the first tile area.
  • enhanced quality tiles constrained like described in this embodiment can be regarded as random access point tiles or viewport switching tiles.
  • bitstreams are encoded, each with different selection of enhanced quality tiles, but with the same base-quality constituent pictures.
  • the IRAP picture interval applying to the constituent pictures may be selected to be longer than the interval of coding random access point tiles as described above.
  • Figure 13a shows an example, where two bitstreams are encoded, wherein "b" refers to a blank tile, as described above, and "B-slices" comprise at least one B- or P-slice and may additionally comprise any other slices, e.g. I-, P-, or B-slices.
  • Coding random access point tiles as described above forms a switching point that enables switching from one bitstream to another. Since the base-quality constituent picture is identical in the encoded bitstreams, the base-quality constituent picture at the switching point can be predicted from earlier picture(s).
  • Figure 13b shows an example of switching from enhanced quality tiles 1,2,5,6 to 3,4,7,8 at the first non- IPvAP switching point, wherein enhanced quality tiles are random access point tiles.
  • a viewport-dependent delivery of omnidirectional video is achieved which can be both encoded and decoded with a single-layer encoder/decoder, such as HEVC Main profile encoder/decoder.
  • a single-layer encoder/decoder such as HEVC Main profile encoder/decoder.
  • intra pictures can be coded infrequently for the base quality, but still enable yet frequent viewpoint switching capability, similarly to the advantages of SHVC ROI and CILP.
  • the use of MCTSs for the base quality is avoided, thereby improving the compression performance for the base quality coding similarly to SHVC ROI.
  • streaming rate-distortion compression gain is achieved similarly to SHVC ROI.
  • the method further comprises enabling prediction from the base quality constituent pictures to the enhanced quality tiles within each picture using the intra block copy prediction or similar.
  • the first coded picture 1400 and the second picture 1402 need not be encoded as two pictures, but a single picture comprising the constituent picture area 1200a and the tile area 1202b may be encoded. Since each input picture is coded only once, decoding complexity is reduced compared to the scheme depicted in Figure 12. The inter prediction references are simpler to arrange as no special handling of the two pictures forming a switching point is required, as in the scheme of the previous section.
  • the embodiment can be implemented using the intra block copy coding (IBC) tool, which is available in a plurality of codecs or coding profiles.
  • Figure 14 illustrates the encoding scheme utilizing IBC.
  • the enhanced quality tiles refer only to the same coded picture, i.e. not to previous pictures.
  • the enhanced quality tiles may also refer to previous pictures but may be constrained so that they do not refer to any other enhanced quality tiles.
  • the constituent picture area 1200a and the tile area 1202b are encoded as a single encoded picture similarly to what is illustrated in Figure 14, but neither in-picture picture nor intra block copy prediction take place from the coded constituent picture to the coded tiles or vice versa. Such an arrangement may have advantages described further below.
  • subsequent pictures (which may be considered to correspond to 1204, ..., in Figure 12) may use any inter prediction hierarchy. Motion constraints are applied to the constituent picture areas and to the tile areas as described above in relation to Figure 12.
  • a second aspect relates to extracting the coded constituent pictures and the coded tiles from bitstreams and encapsulating them into tracks.
  • a method according to this aspect is shown in Figure 15, wherein it is assumed that the first and the second bitstreams are encoded as described in connection with Figure 1 1.
  • the method comprises obtaining (1500) a first bitstream, wherein the encoding of first tile area comprises one or more motion-constrained tile sets, each of which is constrained in such a manner that it does not use the other motion- constrained tile sets of the first bitstream as a reference for prediction; obtaining (1502) a second bitstream, wherein the encoding of first tile area comprises one or more motion- constrained tile sets, each of which is constrained in such a manner that it does not use the other motion-constrained tile sets of the second bitstream as a reference for prediction;
  • extracting (1504) a sequence of coded constituent pictures occupying the first constituent picture area from the first or second bitstream; encapsulating (1506) the sequence of coded constituent pictures as a first track; extracting (1508) a first sequence of coded tiles occupying the first tile area from the first bitstream; encapsulating (1510) the first sequence of coded tiles as a second track; extracting (1512) a second sequence of coded tiles occupying the first tile area from the second bitstream; and encapsulating (1514) the second sequence of coded tiles as a third track.
  • MCTSs comprising enhanced quality tiles are encapsulated into a file as sub-picture tracks.
  • HEVC 'hvcl' or 'hevl' tracks may be used.
  • a sequence of the base-quality constituent pictures is encapsulated into a file as a sub-picture track.
  • HEVC 'hvcl' or 'hevl' tracks may be used, and in H.264/AVC 'avcl' or 'avc3' tracks may be used.
  • one extractor track is formed for each selection of enhanced quality tiles. The extractor track extracts the base-quality constituent pictures and the enhanced quality tiles from their respective tracks.
  • a subset of them may be natively present in the extractor track.
  • a third aspect relates to indicating the switching points (a.k.a. switching positions) between the first and second bitstreams, wherein it is again assumed that the first and the second bitstreams are encoded as described in connection with Figure 11.
  • a method according to this aspect is shown in Figure 16, and it comprises obtaining (1600) a first bitstream, wherein the encoding of first tile area is constrained such that no coded or reconstructed tiles that precede a first set of coded tiles in decoding order and occupy the first tile area are used as a reference for predicting the first set of coded tiles or any subsequent coded tiles in decoding order occupying the first tile area; obtaining (1602) a second bitstream, wherein the encoding of first tile area is constrained such that no coded or reconstructed tiles that precede a second set of coded tiles in decoding order and occupy the first tile area are used as a reference for predicting the second set of coded tiles or any subsequent coded tiles in decoding order occupying the first tile area; and indicating (
  • the extractor track/Representation shown in the lower part of Figure 17, is formed for each assignment of enhanced quality tiles (a, b, c, d).
  • the extractor track extracts the base-quality constituent pictures to the base-quality tracks/Representations and the enhanced quality tiles to the enhanced quality tracks/Representations.
  • one track/Representation per each pair of position in the original picture and position in the extractor track are temporally separated. Segments may be formed in a manner that they start with a switching point.
  • switching points between the extractor Representations may be indicated in the MPD.
  • the Switching element of DASH may be included in the MPD to indicate with the @interval attribute that switching point starting a Segment are switch-to opportunities.
  • @type may be set to "bitstream" to indicate possibility for decoding and presenting switch- from Representation up to switch point t, and continuing decoding and presenting the switch-to Representation from time t onwards.
  • @type equal to "bitstream” also indicates that initialization of the switch-to Representation is not necessary and is not recommended.
  • switching points may be indicated as sync samples of the track (e.g. using the SyncSampleBox) and/or with stream access point signaling, such as using the SAP sample group.
  • SAPs stream access point signaling
  • switching points may be indicated in the MPD with its SAP -related attributes, such as @startWithSAP, which indicates each Media Segment starts with a SAP of particular type(s), or @subsegmentStartsWithSAP, which indicates that each Subsegment starts with a SAP of particular type(s).
  • SAP -related attributes such as @startWithSAP, which indicates each Media Segment starts with a SAP of particular type(s)
  • @subsegmentStartsWithSAP which indicates that each Subsegment starts with a SAP of particular type(s).
  • the respective sub-picture tracks may be made available in a manner that the client can select which one of them is streamed and/or decoded.
  • the DASH preselection feature may be used for this purpose.
  • bitstreams are obtained with the constituent picture area 1200a and the tile area 1202b coded as a single encoded picture similarly to what is illustrated in Figure 14, but neither in-picture picture nor intra block copy prediction take place from the coded constituent picture to the coded tiles or vice versa.
  • no inter prediction takes place from any coded or decoded content of the constituent picture area to any coded or decoded content of the tile area or vice versa.
  • this embodiment is described with reference to an example based on AVC or any other similar video coding scheme including slices but not including tiles similar to HEVC tiles.
  • Figure 18 illustrates the embodiment; however, it should be regarded as one example embodiment, while other embodiments can be derived similarly.
  • Obtaining the bitstreams may be performed with preprocessing and encoding steps or any similar steps as follows: - Pre-processing (prior to encoding): Two spatial resolutions, high resolution (such as
  • 4800x2400 and quarter resolution are prepared from the original ERP content.
  • the higher resolution picture sequence is rotated by 90 degrees.
  • Several sub-picture sequences are extracted from the high-resolution ERP with an equally wide azimuth range and with an overlap between each other.
  • a width for the azimuth range of 180 degrees was chosen in this example, but likewise some other azimuth range width, such as 135 degrees could have been selected.
  • azimuth ranges 0 to 180, 90 to 270, 180 to 360, and 270 to 90 degrees were selected, i.e. adjacent azimuth ranges have a 90- degree overlap in azimuth with each other.
  • the low-resolution ERP sequence and the high-resolution sub-picture sequence are arranged in top-bottom fashion and serve as input sequences for encoding.
  • Each picture in the input sequence is coded with two slices, one containing the low-resolution ERP picture and the other containing the high-resolution sub- picture.
  • the slices are encoded in a manner that no motion vectors cause references over slice boundaries, similarly to what has been discussed earlier with relation to MCTS.
  • the low-resolution ERP slice is coded identically across all bitstreams, or a dummy low-resolution ERP slice containing any content may be coded in some but not all bitstreams.
  • file encapsulation may be performed similarly to what has been described in relation to Figure 17.
  • AVC and its file encapsulation format specified in ISO/IEC 14496-15 causes some constraints explained in the following.
  • the sequence of low-resolution ERP slices is obtained from any bitstream.
  • Sequence and picture parameter sets that are suitable for treating the sequence of low- resolution ERP slices as a compliant AVC bitstream are generated.
  • the sequence of low- resolution ERP slices is stored as a track, e.g. with sample entry 'avcl' or 'avc3'.
  • the low- resolution ERP track may use for example the equirectangular projection ('erpv') restricted video scheme type as it is contains a picture sequence of equirectangular projection without transforms.
  • the sequence of high-resolution sub-picture slices is separately obtained from each bitstream. Since the AVC extractors as specified in ISO/IEC 14496-15 do not include constructors and can only extract one or more entire NAL units, it is not possible to rewrite the slice header of the high-resolution sub-picture slices and store the sub-picture slices as compliant 'avcl' or 'avc3' tracks. AVC extractors would not provide sufficient means to rewrite the slice headers again when merging the two or more slices from different tracks into a compliant bitstream. Thus, the slice NAL units of the sequence of high-resolution sub- picture slices are stored as such into an incomplete track and thus the track may have the 'icpv' sample entry type.
  • 'icpv' may be indicated in an OriginalFormatBox for restricted or encrypted video.
  • the 'icpv' sample entry type indicates that the track might not fully conform to the indicated coding format. In this example, 'icpv' tracks would lack the slices containing the low-resolution ERP pictures.
  • An extractor track e.g. with sample entry 'avc2' or 'avc4', is created corresponding to each sub-picture sequence of the high-resolution ERP.
  • one extractor is created for each of the two slices of each picture, the first extracting a slice from the low-resolution ERP track, and the second one extracting the slice from the high-resolution sub-picture track.
  • Region- wise packing metadata is included in the extractor track to create a mapping between the packed picture and a projected picture of the ERP format.
  • a low-resolution ERP stream is made available and can be decoded without processing for region- wise packing metadata. This stream can serve as a fallback for players that are unable for viewport dependent operation.
  • the low-resolution ERP stream is shared between all viewport-dependent
  • the player can keep and utilize the already or buffered and requested low- resolution (Sub)Segments.
  • a higher receiver buffer occupancy level is maintained for the low- resolution ERP stream compared to the buffer occupancy level for the high-resolution sub-picture stream.
  • a streaming client can achieve this for example by requesting (Sub)segments of the low-resolution ERP stream earlier than requesting the corresponding (Sub)segment of the high-resolution sub-picture stream. For example, (Sub)segment N+l of the low-resolution ERP stream may be requested prior to requesting (Sub)segment N of the high-resolution sub-picture stream, where
  • (Sub)segment with an equal index are aligned across streams.
  • the low-resolution ERP stream is transmitted using a first communication protocol, such as HTTP/2 or WebSockets, which enable the servers to push data to clients and thus maintain a higher buffer occupancy level.
  • the high-resolution sub-picture stream may be requested using another communication protocol, such as HTTP/1.1, or with other parameters of the first communication protocol, in a manner that results into a smaller buffer occupancy level than that for the low-resolution ERP stream.
  • This embodiment increases robustness against network congestion and other sudden changes of throughput, such as handovers in mobile access links, and thus makes rebufferings and playback interruptions less likely.
  • the low-resolution ERP stream is transmitted over a first transmission channel, such as a broadcast or multicast channel. This can be done since the low-resolution ERP stream is independent and provides a common viewport- independent stream suitable for all receivers.
  • the extractor track as well as the high- resolution sub-picture streams can be transmitted over a second transmission channel, such as over a unicast connection.
  • the client can select the extractor track and the high-resolution sub-picture stream based on the current and/or expected viewport.
  • Representation(s) containing the coded tile(s) are transmitted over a second transmission channel, such as over a unicast connection.
  • the constituent picture area and the tile area may generally reside at any positions within the picture area. Hence, a player might not be able to make pre-defined conclusions how to recognize the location, orientation, and size of a constituent picture area and a tile area within a picture area.
  • Region-wise packing metadata may help in identifying regions within the picture area.
  • the constituent picture area may be defined as a first packed region within a packed picture and the tile area or each individual tile may be defined as a second packed region.
  • the first projected region corresponding to the first packed region and the second projected region corresponding to the second packed region overlap on the projected picture.
  • region-wise packing metadata may allow overlapped projected regions, which may also be used in other usage scenarios than those described in the embodiments.
  • region-wise packing metadata does not indicate which projected region (or the respective packed region) should be used in rendering when several projected regions overlap. It is remarked that projected regions may overlap only partially. While embodiments below are described with reference to the term projected region, it needs to be understood that they may apply only to the part where several projected regions overlap.
  • a horizontal sampling ratio and a vertical sampling ratio are derived for each projected region as the ratio between the extent (width or height) of the projected region relative the respective extent of the packed region, taking into account potential rotation transform by 90 or 270 degrees.
  • the region with the smallest horizontal and vertical sampling ratio is picked for rendering on a display.
  • other means for determining which region is rendered for displaying are needed and discussed in the following paragraphs. It is remarked that it is possible to define the sampling ratio as the extent (width or height) of the packed region relative the respective extent of the projected region, in which case the comparisons above would also be reversed.
  • an encoder, a file writer, or alike includes layering information or such into region-wise packing metadata.
  • the layering information may be present and/or may have defined semantics for each projected region or for those projected regions that overlap or for those projected regions that overlap and for which the sampling ratios do not resolve the region to be rendered, as described above.
  • the layering information may be indicative of an order of the placing the projected regions on a projected picture, and hence the last projected region among overlapped projected regions that is placed on a projected picture is rendered.
  • a decoder, a file parser, a player, or alike decodes the layering information from region- wise packing metadata and accordingly renders the topmost region among overlapped regions.
  • Region- wise quality ranking metadata may be present in or along a video or image bitstream. Quality ranking values of quality ranking regions may be relative to other quality ranking regions of the same bitstream or the same track or quality ranking regions of other tracks.
  • Region-wise quality ranking metadata can be indicated for example by using the SphereRegionQualityRankingBox or the 2DRegionQualityRankingBox, which are specified as a part of MPEG Omnidirectional Media Format.
  • SphereRegionQualityRankingBox provides quality ranking values for sphere regions, i.e., regions defined on sphere domain, while 2DRegionQualityRankingBox provides quality ranking values for rectangular regions on decoded pictures (and potentially a leftover region covering all areas not covered by any of the rectangular regions).
  • Quality ranking values indicate a relative quality order of quality ranking regions.
  • quality ranking region A has a non-zero quality ranking value less than that of quality ranking region B
  • quality ranking region A has a higher quality than quality ranking region B.
  • the quality ranking value is non-zero
  • the picture quality within the entire indicated quality ranking region may be defined to be approximately constant.
  • the boundaries of the quality ranking sphere or 2D regions may or may not match with the boundaries of the packed regions or the boundaries of the projected regions specified in region-wise packing metadata.
  • an encoder, a file writer, or alike includes 2D region-wise quality ranking metadata in or along the bitstream for indicating which region among overlapped regions should be selected for rendering.
  • the encoder, file writer, or alike concludes that horizontal and vertical sampling ratio are not sufficient for determining which region among overlapped regions should be selected for rendering, and as a response to this conclusion includes 2D region- wise quality ranking metadata in or along the bitstream.
  • a decoder, a file parser, a player, or alike decodes 2D region- wise quality ranking metadata from or along the bitstream for determining which region among overlapped regions is selected for rendering.
  • the decoder, file parser, the player, or alike concludes that horizontal and vertical sampling ratio are not sufficient for determining which region among overlapped regions should be selected for rendering, and as a response to this conclusion decodes 2D region- wise quality ranking metadata from or along the bitstream and determines accordingly which region among overlapped regions is used for rendering.
  • the enhanced-quality tiles may generally be selected to have any width and height that are allowed by the underlying coding specification.
  • a tile grid defined by tile column widths and tile row heights in units of CTUs specifies the constraints for selecting enhanced-quality tiles.
  • Rendering of omnidirectional images may be done using so-called UV mapping (a.k.a. texture mapping), in which for each vertex on the rendering mesh (i.e., the UV map), the respective 2D coordinates on the decoded picture are provided.
  • the decoded image needs not be uniformly sampled in order to use UV mapping.
  • rendering of packed pictures can be done by providing, for each vertex of the rendering mesh, the respective 2D coordinates on the decoded picture. Since there is no need to reconstruct the projected picture as part of the rendering in the player, savings in processing capacity or speed, memory usage, and memory access bandwidth usage can be achieved compared to an approach where a projected picture is reconstructed from the packed picture and used as a source for UV mapping.
  • an encoder, a file writer, or alike indicates in or along the bitstream, e.g. as part of region-wise packing metadata, whether the region boundaries of projected regions match exactly with a uniform UV map or the region boundaries of projected regions do not or might not match exactly with a uniform UV map.
  • a decoder, a file parser, a player, or alike decodes from or along the bitstream, e.g. from region-wise packing metadata, whether the region boundaries of projected regions match exactly with a uniform UV map.
  • the decoder, file parser, player, or alike may determine its rendering pipeline accordingly: when the region boundaries of projected regions might not exactly match with a uniform UV map, the rendering pipeline may include reconstruction of the projected picture and using the projected picture as a source for UV mapping. Otherwise, the packed picture may be directly used a source for UV mapping.
  • a suitable horizontal and/or vertical grid step size (in pixels) for the UV map is concluded from region- wise packing metadata and particularly from the information concerning projected regions.
  • the coarsest horizontal and/or vertical grid step size may be pre-defined e.g. in a standard, and the actual horizontal and/or vertical grid step size used in UV mapping may be such that an integer multiply of it results into the respective coarsest value. For example, if the pre-defined coarsest value is 256 pixels, the actual grid step size may be chosen to be for example 16, 32, 64, or 128.
  • the encoder, the file writer, or alike indicates horizontal and/or vertical grid step size in or along the bitstream, e.g. as part of region-wise packing metadata.
  • the decoder, the file parser, the player or alike decodes an indicated horizontal and/or vertical grid step size from or along the bitstream, e.g. from region-wise packing metadata.
  • the actual horizontal and/or vertical grid step size used in UV mapping may be such that an integer multiply of it results into the respective indicated value.
  • the constraints on projected regions with respective to the pre-defined or indicated horizontal and/or vertical grid step size may be expressed by using the modulus operator defined to return the remainder of after an integer division as follows:
  • the horizontal coordinate of the left-most pixel column of a projected region modulus the horizontal grid step size is a constant value for all projected regions.
  • the vertical coordinate of the top-most pixel column of a projected region modulus the vertical grid step size is a constant value for all projected regions.
  • the width of a projected region (in pixels) modulus the horizontal grid step size is equal to 0 for all projected regions.
  • region-wise packing metadata may comprise two parts, a static part and a dynamic part.
  • the static part may comprise indication(s) informative of whether the region boundaries of projected regions match exactly with a uniform UV map or the region boundaries of projected regions do not or might not match exactly with a uniform UV map.
  • the static part may also comprise the horizontal and/or vertical grid step size (in pixels) for such a uniform UV map, as described above.
  • the dynamic part may comprise information indicative of the mapping of regions between a packed picture and a projected picture.
  • the static part may reside in a syntax structure that is remains unchanged or is changing or activated infrequently.
  • the static part may reside in a sample entry of a track and/or in an SEI message that affects an entire coded video sequence.
  • the dynamic part may reside in a syntax structure that can be dynamically updated, e.g. updated picture-wise.
  • the dynamic part may reside in a sample group description entry of
  • the dynamic part may reside in an SEI message that is allowed to be sent and updated in content as frequently as for each picture.
  • a player may keep its UV map or the equivalent rendering mesh unchanged as long as the same static part remains in effect.
  • a player may reset its rendering pipeline with a new UV map or the equivalent rendering mesh when the static part changes or a new static part is activated.
  • time-aligned left-view and right-view pictures at synchronization points are encoded or rewritten into two coded pictures with prediction between them.
  • the other pictures may be encoded or arranged in frame-packed manner and predicted from the respective constituent pictures only.
  • Figure 19 shows an example of such spatial multiplexing for constrained inter- view prediction, wherein said two coded encoded such that the left-view constituent picture of the first picture is used as prediction reference for the right-view constituent picture of the second picture.
  • the right-view constituent picture of the first picture may be blank, and the left- view constituent picture of the second picture may be blank or not coded at all.
  • the embodiments disclosed herein enable to carry out the constrained inter-view prediction such that separate bitstreams are used for the left and right views.
  • the predicted view bitstream is arranged to include each independent view IRAP picture coded as described in other embodiments.
  • a time-aligned predicted view picture comprising the base quality constituent picture and enhanced quality tiles is predicted from the preceding independent view IRAP picture.
  • a first time-aligned predicted view picture comprising the base quality constituent picture is predicted from the preceding independent view IRAP picture and a second time-aligned picture comprising enhanced quality tiles is predicted from the first time-aligned predicted view picture.
  • the predicted view bitstream is arranged to include each independent view IRAP picture and each second picture of the independent view picture following each independent view IRAP picture (coded from the same input picture and comprising enhanced quality tiles).
  • the independent view IRAP picture may be used to predict a first time-aligned predicted view picture comprising the base quality constituent picture.
  • a second time-aligned picture comprising enhanced quality tiles is predicted from the first time-aligned predicted view picture and from the second picture of the independent view.
  • the left and right view constituent pictures and enhanced quality tiles may be arranged into the same bitstream using spatial packing.
  • Figures 20a, 20b and 20c illustrate some options for carrying out the spatial packing.
  • Figure 20a shows an example for arranging the left and right view constituent pictures and enhanced quality tiles into the same bitstream using the spatial multiplexing for constrained inter- view prediction of Figure 19, wherein said two coded pictures are encoded such that the left-view constituent picture of the first picture is used as prediction reference for the right-view constituent picture of the second picture as well as for the enhanced quality tiles of the left and right view pictures of the second picture.
  • the right- view constituent picture of the first picture may be blank, and the left- view constituent picture of the second picture may be blank or not coded at all.
  • FIG. 20b shows another example for arranging the left and right view constituent pictures and enhanced quality tiles into the same bitstream, which is especially usable if the intra block copy coding (IBC) tool is available for encoding.
  • IBC motion vectors can be used to realize prediction from a base quality constituent picture to an enhanced quality tile, which may be considered similar to inter-layer prediction in the SHVC ROI approach.
  • the IBC motion vectors are further used to realize prediction from the independent view to the predicted view in each access unit, which may be considered similar to inter- view prediction, without a need to constrain the inter- view prediction to IRAP pictures only as in the constrained inter- view prediction.
  • motion vectors of enhanced quality tiles are constrained not to refer to other enhanced quality tiles.
  • LI tiles do not refer to L2, L5, L6 or and predicted view tiles as a reference for prediction.
  • motion vectors of enhanced quality tiles are constrained not to refer to other enhanced quality tiles of the same view or the respective enhanced quality tiles of the independent view.
  • motion vectors of Rl tile can refer to Rl, LI, and the base quality constituent picture(s), but not to R2, R5, R5, L2, L5, or L6 tiles.
  • Figure 20c shows yet another example for arranging the left and right view constituent pictures and enhanced quality tiles into the same bitstream, wherein a third picture is encoded for the same input picture.
  • both the left-view and the right- view constituent pictures are skip coded (i.e. blank or not coded at all) and the enhanced quality tiles for the right view are predicted from both the enhanced quality tiles of the independent view (i.e. left view) in the second picture and the base quality constituent picture of the predicted view (i.e. right view) in the second picture.
  • the left and right view constituent pictures and enhanced quality tiles may be arranged into the same bitstream using temporal packing.
  • Figures 20a and 20b illustrate some options for carrying out the temporal packing.
  • Figure 21a shows an example for arranging the left and right view constituent pictures and enhanced quality tiles temporally into the same bitstream, wherein a third picture is encoded for the same input picture.
  • the constituent picture is skip coded (i.e. blank or not coded at all) and the enhanced quality tiles for the left view are predicted from the left view constituent picture of the first picture.
  • the right-view constituent picture is encoded from the left view constituent picture of the first picture and the enhanced quality tiles for the right view are predicted from the enhanced quality tiles of the left view in the second picture.
  • motion vectors of the enhanced quality tiles are constrained not to refer to other enhanced quality tiles.
  • motion vectors of enhanced quality tiles are constrained not to refer to other enhanced quality tiles of the same view or respective enhanced quality tiles of the independent view.
  • the stereo view may be needed only for main view, and the mono view may suffice for low quality area (such as background). Thereupon, only one view of the constituent pictures may be sufficient to cover the low quality areas.
  • Figure 21b shows an example, where the independent base quality view along with high quality tiles of both views are transmitted and/or decoded. Similar prediction constraints as disclosed above for spatial and temporal packings are considered in this case.
  • the enhanced quality tiles may be allowed to refer to the base quality constituent picture(s) of previous picture(s) in (de)coding order. This may be considered similar to so-called inter- layer diagonal prediction.
  • Figure 22 shows a block diagram of a video decoder suitable for employing embodiments of the invention.
  • Figure 22 depicts a structure of a two-layer decoder, but it would be appreciated that the decoding operations may similarly be employed in a single- layer decoder.
  • the video decoder 550 comprises a first decoder section 552 for a base layer and a second decoder section 554 a predicted layer.
  • Block 556 illustrates a demultiplexer for delivering information regarding base layer pictures to the first decoder section 552 and for delivering information regarding predicted layer pictures to the second decoder section 554.
  • Reference P'n stands for a predicted representation of an image block.
  • Reference D'n stands for a reconstructed prediction error signal.
  • Blocks 704, 804 illustrate preliminary
  • Blocks 703, 803 illustrate inverse transform (T 1 ).
  • Blocks 702, 802 illustrate inverse quantization (Q 1 ).
  • Blocks 701, 801 illustrate entropy decoding (E 1 ).
  • Blocks 705, 805 illustrate a reference frame memory (RFM).
  • Blocks 706, 806 illustrate prediction (P) (either inter prediction or intra prediction).
  • Blocks 707, 807 illustrate filtering (F).
  • Blocks 708, 808 may be used to combine decoded prediction error information with predicted base layer/predicted layer images to obtain the preliminary reconstructed images (I'n).
  • Preliminary reconstructed and filtered base layer images may be output 709 from the first decoder section 552 and preliminary reconstructed and filtered base layer images may be output 809 from the first decoder section 554.
  • the decoder should be interpreted to cover any operational unit capable to carry out the decoding operations, such as a player, a receiver, a gateway, a demultiplexer and/or a decoder.
  • the decoding operations may be carried out by with a single-layer codec, such as HEVC Main profile codec, i.e. no scalable coding extension is required.
  • a single-layer codec such as HEVC Main profile codec, i.e. no scalable coding extension is required.
  • shared codec pictures as described above enable similar functionality as provided in the SHVC ROI approach by the infrequent IRAP pictures in the base layer and the relatively frequent IRAP pictures in enhancement layers. This functionality can be used for achieving frequent switching capability with moderate rate-distortion penalty.
  • Figure 23 is a graphical representation of an example multimedia communication system within which various embodiments may be implemented.
  • a data source 1510 provides a source signal in an analog, uncompressed digital, or compressed digital format, or any combination of these formats.
  • An encoder 1520 may include or be connected with a preprocessing, such as data format conversion and/or filtering of the source signal.
  • the encoder 1520 encodes the source signal into a coded media bitstream. It should be noted that a bitstream to be decoded may be received directly or indirectly from a remote device located within virtually any type of network. Additionally, the bitstream may be received from local hardware or software.
  • the encoder 1520 may be capable of encoding more than one media type, such as audio and video, or more than one encoder 1520 may be required to code different media types of the source signal.
  • the encoder 1520 may also get synthetically produced input, such as graphics and text, or it may be capable of producing coded bitstreams of synthetic media. In the following, only processing of one coded media bitstream of one media type is considered to simplify the description. It should be noted, however, that typically real-time broadcast services comprise several streams (typically at least one audio, video and text sub-titling stream). It should also be noted that the system may include many encoders, but in the figure only one encoder 1520 is represented to simplify the description without a lack of generality. It should be further understood that, although text and examples contained herein may specifically describe an encoding process, one skilled in the art would understand that the same concepts and principles also apply to the corresponding decoding process and vice versa.
  • the coded media bitstream may be transferred to a storage 1530.
  • the storage 1530 may comprise any type of mass memory to store the coded media bitstream.
  • the format of the coded media bitstream in the storage 1530 may be an elementary self-contained bitstream format, or one or more coded media bitstreams may be encapsulated into a container file, or the coded media bitstream may be encapsulated into a Segment format suitable for DASH (or a similar streaming system) and stored as a sequence of Segments. If one or more media bitstreams are encapsulated in a container file, a file generator (not shown in the figure) may be used to store the one more media bitstreams in the file and create file format metadata, which may also be stored in the file.
  • the encoder 1520 or the storage 1530 may comprise the file generator, or the file generator is operationally attached to either the encoder 1520 or the storage 1530.
  • Some systems operate "live", i.e. omit storage and transfer coded media bitstream from the encoder 1520 directly to the sender 1540.
  • the coded media bitstream may then be transferred to the sender 1540, also referred to as the server, on a need basis.
  • the format used in the transmission may be an elementary self-contained bitstream format, a packet stream format, a Segment format suitable for DASH (or a similar streaming system), or one or more coded media bitstreams may be encapsulated into a container file.
  • the encoder 1520, the storage 1530, and the server 1540 may reside in the same physical device or they may be included in separate devices.
  • the encoder 1520 and server 1540 may operate with live real-time content, in which case the coded media bitstream is typically not stored
  • the server 1540 sends the coded media bitstream using a communication protocol stack.
  • the stack may include but is not limited to one or more of Real-Time Transport Protocol (RTP), User Datagram Protocol (UDP), Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), and Internet Protocol (IP).
  • RTP Real-Time Transport Protocol
  • UDP User Datagram Protocol
  • HTTP Hypertext Transfer Protocol
  • TCP Transmission Control Protocol
  • IP Internet Protocol
  • the server 1540 encapsulates the coded media bitstream into packets.
  • RTP Real-Time Transport Protocol
  • UDP User Datagram Protocol
  • HTTP Hypertext Transfer Protocol
  • TCP Transmission Control Protocol
  • IP Internet Protocol
  • the sender 1540 may comprise or be operationally attached to a "sending file parser" (not shown in the figure).
  • a sending file parser locates appropriate parts of the coded media bitstream to be conveyed over the communication protocol.
  • the sending file parser may also help in creating the correct format for the communication protocol, such as packet headers and payloads.
  • the multimedia container file may contain encapsulation instructions, such as hint tracks in the ISOBMFF, for
  • the server 1540 may or may not be connected to a gateway 1550 through a communication network, which may e.g. be a combination of a CDN, the Internet and/or one or more access networks.
  • the gateway may also or alternatively be referred to as a middle- box.
  • the gateway may be an edge server (of a CDN) or a web proxy. It is noted that the system may generally comprise any number gateways or alike, but for the sake of simplicity, the following description only considers one gateway 1550.
  • the gateway 1550 may perform different types of functions, such as translation of a packet stream according to one communication protocol stack to another communication protocol stack, merging and forking of data streams, and manipulation of data stream according to the downlink and/or receiver capabilities, such as controlling the bit rate of the forwarded stream according to prevailing downlink network conditions.
  • the gateway 1550 may be a server entity in various embodiments.
  • the system includes one or more receivers 1560, typically capable of receiving, demodulating, and de-capsulating the transmitted signal into a coded media bitstream.
  • the coded media bitstream may be transferred to a recording storage 1570.
  • the recording storage 1570 may comprise any type of mass memory to store the coded media bitstream.
  • the recording storage 1570 may alternatively or additively comprise computation memory, such as random access memory.
  • the format of the coded media bitstream in the recording storage 1570 may be an elementary self-contained bitstream format, or one or more coded media bitstreams may be encapsulated into a container file.
  • a container file is typically used and the receiver 1560 comprises or is attached to a container file generator producing a container file from input streams.
  • Some systems operate "live,” i.e. omit the recording storage 1570 and transfer coded media bitstream from the receiver 1560 directly to the decoder 1580.
  • the most recent part of the recorded stream e.g., the most recent 10-minute excerption of the recorded stream, is maintained in the recording storage 1570, while any earlier recorded data is discarded from the recording storage 1570.
  • the coded media bitstream may be transferred from the recording storage 1570 to the decoder 1580.
  • a file parser (not shown in the figure) is used to decapsulate each coded media bitstream from the container file.
  • the recording storage 1570 or a decoder 1580 may comprise the file parser, or the file parser is attached to either recording storage 1570 or the decoder 1580. It should also be noted that the system may include many decoders, but here only one decoder 1570 is discussed to simplify the description without a lack of generality
  • the coded media bitstream may be processed further by a decoder 1570, whose output is one or more uncompressed media streams.
  • a renderer 1590 may reproduce the uncompressed media streams with a loudspeaker or a display, for example.
  • the receiver 1560, recording storage 1570, decoder 1570, and renderer 1590 may reside in the same physical device or they may be included in separate devices.
  • a sender 1540 and/or a gateway 1550 may be configured to perform switching between different representations e.g. for switching between different viewports of 360- degree video content, view switching, bitrate adaptation and/or fast start-up, and/or a sender 1540 and/or a gateway 1550 may be configured to select the transmitted representation(s). Switching between different representations may take place for multiple reasons, such as to respond to requests of the receiver 1560 or prevailing conditions, such as throughput, of the network over which the bitstream is conveyed. In other words, the receiver 1560 may initiate switching between representations.
  • a request from the receiver can be, e.g., a request for a Segment or a Subsegment from a different representation than earlier, a request for a change of transmitted scalability layers and/or sub-layers, or a change of a rendering device having different capabilities compared to the previous one.
  • a request for a Segment may be an HTTP GET request.
  • a request for a Subsegment may be an HTTP GET request with a byte range.
  • bitrate adjustment or bitrate adaptation may be used for example for providing so-called fast start-up in streaming services, where the bitrate of the transmitted stream is lower than the channel bitrate after starting or random-accessing the streaming in order to start playback immediately and to achieve a buffer occupancy level that tolerates occasional packet delays and/or retransmissions.
  • Bitrate adaptation may include multiple representation or layer up-switching and representation or layer down-switching operations taking place in various orders.
  • a decoder 1580 may be configured to perform switching between different representations e.g. for switching between different viewports of 360-degree video content, view switching, bitrate adaptation and/or fast start-up, and/or a decoder 1580 may be configured to select the transmitted representation(s).
  • Switching between different representations may take place for multiple reasons, such as to achieve faster decoding operation or to adapt the transmitted bitstream, e.g. in terms of bitrate, to prevailing conditions, such as throughput, of the network over which the bitstream is conveyed.
  • Faster decoding operation might be needed for example if the device including the decoder 1580 is multi-tasking and uses computing resources for other purposes than decoding the video bitstream.
  • faster decoding operation might be needed when content is played back at a faster pace than the normal playback speed, e.g. twice or three times faster than conventional real-time playback rate.
  • embodiments have been described with reference to and/or using terminology of HEVC. It needs to be understood that embodiments may be similarly realized with any video encoder and/or video decoder with respective terms of other codecs. For example, rather than tiles or tile sets, embodiments could be realized with rectangular slice groups of H.264/AVC.
  • embodiments have been described in relation to DASH or MPEG-DASH. It needs to be understood that embodiments could be similarly realized with any other similar streaming system, and/or any similar protocols as those used in DASH, and/or any similar segment and/or manifest formats as those used in DASH, and/or any similar client operation as that of a DASH client. For example, some embodiments could be realized with the M3U manifest format.
  • embodiments have been described with reference to the term extractor track. It needs to be understood that embodiments can be realized with any type of collector tracks, rather than just extractor tracks. More specifically, the embodiments can be realized with tile base tracks instead of extractor tracks. Moreover, embodiments can be realized by using both extractor tracks and tile base tracks, e.g. in the same file or for different Representations included in the same MPD.
  • user equipment may comprise a video codec such as those described in embodiments of the invention above. It shall be appreciated that the term user equipment is intended to cover any suitable type of wireless user equipment, such as mobile telephones, portable data processing devices or portable web browsers.
  • elements of a public land mobile network may also comprise video codecs as described above.
  • the various embodiments of the invention may be implemented in hardware or special purpose circuits, software, logic or any combination thereof.
  • some aspects may be implemented in hardware, while other aspects may be implemented in firmware or software which may be executed by a controller, microprocessor or other computing device, although the invention is not limited thereto.
  • firmware or software which may be executed by a controller, microprocessor or other computing device, although the invention is not limited thereto.
  • While various aspects of the invention may be illustrated and described as block diagrams, flow charts, or using some other pictorial representation, it is well understood that these blocks, apparatus, systems, techniques or methods described herein may be implemented in, as non-limiting examples, hardware, software, firmware, special purpose circuits or logic, general purpose hardware or controller or other computing devices, or some combination thereof.
  • the embodiments of this invention may be implemented by computer software executable by a data processor of the mobile device, such as in the processor entity, or by hardware, or by a combination of software and hardware.
  • any blocks of the logic flow as in the Figures may represent program steps, or interconnected logic circuits, blocks and functions, or a combination of program steps and logic circuits, blocks and functions.
  • the software may be stored on such physical media as memory chips, or memory blocks implemented within the processor, magnetic media such as hard disk or floppy disks, and optical media such as for example DVD and the data variants thereof, CD.
  • the memory may be of any type suitable to the local technical environment and may be implemented using any suitable data storage technology, such as semiconductor-based memory devices, magnetic memory devices and systems, optical memory devices and systems, fixed memory and removable memory.
  • the data processors may be of any type suitable to the local technical environment, and may include one or more of general purpose computers, special purpose computers, microprocessors, digital signal processors (DSPs) and processors based on multi-core processor architecture, as non-limiting examples.
  • Embodiments of the inventions may be practiced in various components such as integrated circuit modules.
  • the design of integrated circuits is by and large a highly automated process.
  • Complex and powerful software tools are available for converting a logic level design into a semiconductor circuit design ready to be etched and formed on a semiconductor substrate.
  • Programs such as those provided by Synopsys, Inc. of Mountain View, California and Cadence Design, of San Jose, California automatically route conductors and locate components on a semiconductor chip using well established rules of design as well as libraries of pre-stored design modules.
  • the resultant design in a standardized electronic format (e.g., Opus, GDSII, or the like) may be transmitted to a semiconductor fabrication facility or "fab" for fabrication.

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Abstract

L'invention concerne un procédé consistant à : encoder une séquence d'images d'entrée en un premier train de bits, ledit encodage consistant à : attribuer une zone d'image à une première zone d'image constitutive et une première zone de tuile qui ne se chevauchent pas à l'intérieur de la zone d'image; encoder une première image d'entrée en une image constitutive codée d'une première image codée du premier train de bits, où l'image constitutive codée dans le premier train de bits occupe la première zone d'image constitutive, et la première image codée du premier train de bits occupe la zone d'image, et où ledit encodage consiste à reconstruire une première image constitutive reconstruite correspondant à l'image constitutive codée dans le premier train de bits; et encoder une première région de la première image d'entrée en un premier ensemble de tuiles codées, le premier ensemble de tuiles codées occupant la première zone de tuile, et ledit encodage consistant à effectuer une prédiction en utilisant l'image constitutive codée dans le premier train de bits ou la première image constitutive reconstruite en tant que référence, et le premier ensemble de tuiles codées est encodé en la première image codée ou en une deuxième image codée du premier train de bits, la deuxième image codée occupant la zone d'image.
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