Bit Depth Scalable Coding

In this paper, we propose an AVC compliant bit depth scalable coding solution based on MacroBlock level inter-layer prediction. This proposed coding solution is based on the current SVC platform and new decoding processes for bit depth upsampling are introduced. The proposed codec can give an 8-bit AVC main profile or high profile base layer coded bit-stream multiplexed with a high bit enhancement layer coded bit-stream generated by MacroBlock level inter-layer prediction and rate-distortion optimization. Compatibility to other types of scalability that are supported in current SVC standard is supported in our solution. The proposed bit depth scalable coding is implemented based on the up-to-date SVC reference software (JSVM7.12). Comparison results show that the proposed bit depth scalable coding outperforms simulcast by on average 5.2 dB for 8-bit to 10-bit scalability with the enhancement layer bitstream covering approximately 40% of the whole bitstream.