Video decoder reconfigurations and AVS extensions in the new MPEG reconfigurable video coding framework

Multimedia devices are now required to support multiple coding standards. Supporting seamlessly both interoperability between standards and flexibility for application specific optimizations is a great challenge for current video coding technology. After a brief description of the new MPEG reconfigurable video coding (RVC) framework, this paper describes possible decoder reconfigurations within this framework. The essential idea behind this framework is to reuse as most as possible the algorithms or architectures which are common to several different standards and to reconfigure video decoders in a flexible way at the coding tool level. A coding tool is an encapsulated piece of algorithm. Reconfiguration can address specific optimization objectives such as improvement in colour reproduction or higher performance at high bitrate. These simple examples show that the tool level definition of the video tool library is flexible enough to support the incremental introduction of new coding algorithms, the usage of algorithms taken from different video standards (i.e. AVS is provided in one example), and the possibility of high level reconfigurations. Thus, this paper demonstrates that the RVC framework offers a great flexibility in selecting coding tools for decoder reconfigurations to satisfy a wide variety of different applications.