Multi-loop scalable video codec based on high efficiency video coding (HEVC)

A multi-loop scalable video coder for high efficiency video coding (HEVC) is proposed in this paper. A coding unit (CU)-level inter-layer sample prediction tool is proposed to exploit redundancy between enhancement-layer and up-sampled base-layer pictures. To reduce decoded picture buffer size and memory bandwidth in a multi-loop decoder, a hierarchical inter-layer prediction tool is proposed as well using two picture-level flags. The proposed solution requires minimum amount of changes relative to the single-layer HEVC codec to support HEVC scalable coding, and provides a good complexity and coding efficiency trade-off as revealed by the experimental results.