CNN-based Prediction of Partition Path for VVC Fast Inter Partitioning Using Motion Fields

The Versatile Video Coding (VVC) standard has been recently finalized by the Joint Video Exploration Team (JVET). Compared to the High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) standard, VVC offers about 50% compression efficiency gain, in terms of Bjontegaard Delta-Rate (BD-rate), at the cost of a 10-fold increase in encoding complexity. In this paper, we propose a method based on Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) to speed up the inter partitioning process in VVC. Firstly, a novel representation for the quadtree with nested multi-type tree (QTMT) partition is introduced, derived from the partition path. Secondly, we develop a U-Net-based CNN taking a multi-scale motion vector field as input at the Coding Tree Unit (CTU) level. The purpose of CNN inference is to predict the optimal partition path during the Rate-Distortion Optimization (RDO) process. To achieve this, we divide CTU into grids and predict the Quaternary Tree (QT) depth and Multi-type Tree (MT) split decisions for each cell of the grid. Thirdly, an efficient partition pruning algorithm is introduced to employ the CNN predictions at each partitioning level to skip RDO evaluations of unnecessary partition paths. Finally, an adaptive threshold selection scheme is designed, making the trade-off between complexity and efficiency scalable. Experiments show that the proposed method can achieve acceleration ranging from 16.5% to 60.2% under the RandomAccess Group Of Picture 32 (RAGOP32) configuration with a reasonable efficiency drop ranging from 0.44% to 4.59% in terms of BD-rate, which surpasses other state-of-the-art solutions. Additionally, our method stands out as one of the lightest approaches in the field, which ensures its applicability to other encoders

3D-CE5.h: Merge candidate list for disparity compensated prediction

HEVC implements a candidate vector list for merge and skip modes. The construction of this list has been extensively studied in the JCT-VC group (see for instance JCTVC-G039). It has been shown in JCTVC-I0293 that it is possible to improve the HEVC coding performance by adding in the merge list copies of the first candidate shifted by an arbitrary offset. The same basis is considered in this document and applied to disparity compensation. A gain of 0.3 % is obtained on average on side views

CE5.h related: Merge candidate list extension for disparity compensated prediction

HEVC implements a candidate vector list for merge and skip modes. The construction of this list has been extensively studied in the JCT-VC group (see for instance JCTVC-G039). It has been shown in JCTVC-I0293 that it is possible to improve the HEVC coding performance by adding in the merge list copies of the first candidate shifted by an arbitrary offset. The same basis is considered in this document and applied to disparity compensation. A gain of 0.4 % is obtained on average on side views

Statistical analysis of inter coding in vvc test model (VTM)

International audienceThe promising compression efficiency improvement of Versatile Video Coding (VVC) compared to High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) [1] comes at the cost of a non-negligible encoder-side complexity. The largely increased complexity overhead is a possible obstacle towards its industrial implementation. Many papers have proposed acceleration methods for VVC. Still, a better understanding of VVC complexity, especially related to new partitions and coding tools, is desirable to help the design of new and better acceleration methods. For this purpose, statistical analyses have been conducted, with a focus on Coding Unit (CU) sizes and inter coding modes

Light-weight cnn-based vvc inter partitioning acceleration

International audienceThe Versatile Video Coding (VVC) standard has been finalized by Joint Video Exploration Team (JVET) in 2020. Compared to the High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) standard, VVC offers about 50% compression efficiency gain, in terms of Bjontegaard Delta-Rate (BD-rate), at the cost of about 10x more encoder complexity [1]. In this paper, we propose a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN)-based method to speed up inter partitioning in VVC. Our method operates at the Coding Tree Unit (CTU) level, by splitting each CTU into a fixed grid of 8×8 blocks. Then each cell in this grid is associated with information about the partitioning depth within that area. A lightweight network for predicting this grid is employed during the rate-distortion optimization to limit the Quaternary Tree (QT)-split search and avoid partitions that are unlikely to be selected. Experiments show that the proposed method can achieve acceleration ranging from 17% to 30% in the Ran-domAccess Group Of Picture 32 (RAGOP32) mode of VVC Test Model (VTM)10 with a reasonable efficiency drop ranging from 0.37% to 1.18% in terms of BD-rate increase

Codage robuste par descriptions multiples pour transmission sans fil d'information multimédia

RENNES1-BU Sciences Philo (352382102) / SudocSudocFranceF

Soft and Joint Source-Channel Decoding of Quasi-Arithmetic Codes

The issue of robust and joint source-channel decoding of quasi-arithmetic codes is addressed. Quasi-arithmetic coding is a reduced precision and complexity implementation of arithmetic coding. This amounts to approximating the distribution of the source. The approximation of the source distribution leads to the introduction of redundancy that can be exploited for robust decoding in presence of transmission errors. Hence, this approximation controls both the trade-off between compression efficiency and complexity and at the same time the redundancy (excess rate) introduced by this suboptimality. This paper provides first a state model of a quasi-arithmetic coder and decoder for binary and -ary sources. The design of an error-resilient soft decoding algorithm follows quite naturally. The compression efficiency of quasi-arithmetic codes allows to add extra redundancy in the form of markers designed specifically to prevent desynchronization. The algorithm is directly amenable for iterative source-channel decoding in the spirit of serial turbo codes. The coding and decoding algorithms have been tested for a wide range of channel signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs). Experimental results reveal improved symbol error rate (SER) and SNR performances against Huffman and optimal arithmetic codes.</p