Subband Decomposition for High-Resolution Color in HEVC and AVC 4:2:0 Video Coding Systems

We present a frame packing arrangement (FPA) scheme that enables an encoder to convey high-resolution color video (4:4:4) through a video coding system designed for subsampled color video (4:2:0). We present new experimental results that complement a previous report for cases where the 4:4:4 and 4:2:0 encodings have similar compression levels. We focus especially on the “band separation” method previously proposed – showing such approaches to have better performance than was evident in the previous experiments. The use of this scheme can be indicated by a metadata tag such as the FPA supplemental enhancement information (SEI) message defined in the HEVC (Rec. ITU-T H.265 | ISO/IEC 23008-2) and AVC (Rec. ITU-T H.264 | ISO/IEC 14496-10) video coding standards, in a similar manner as has previously been used to represent the two views of stereoscopic 3D video for compatible encoding. Relative to native 4:4:4 encoding, the proposed scheme provides the advantage of compatibility with the 4:2:0 video decoding process that is likely to be available in a variety of products. The packing and unpacking procedures are of relatively low complexity, and can easily be implemented in conjunction with any 4:2:0 video codec.