Scalable Video Coding

Codec

Metric (unit)

Multiview Video Coding

Mathematics

Multimedia

Operating system

Algorithm

Video quality

Statistics

Motion compensation

Parallel computing

SIMD

Coding (social sciences)

Soft-decision decoder

Economics

Reference software

Video tracking

Operations management

Software

Computer science

Video processing

Real-time computing

Computer hardware

Decoding methods

Versatile Video Coding (VVC) is the emerging video coding standard to be finalized by the Joint Video Experts Team in July 2020. Compared to its predecessor, the High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) standard, VVC provides 50% bit-rate reduction at comparable visual quality for natural video content in high-definition (HD) and ultra high-definition (UHD) resolution. To achieve this, the standard incorporates more advanced and generalized algorithms, leading to an increase in computational complexity. This includes for example additional in-loop filters, decoder-side motion refinement and search as well as an increased number of transforms, which creates a grand challenge for implementers to achieve live decoding on general-purpose CPUs. In this paper, the work on an efficient software decoder implementation for the upcoming VVC standard is described, including optimization of sample operations using single instruction multiple data (SIMD) instructions and parallelization approaches with multithreading. As a result, the presented decoder can perform live decoding of 10bit HD video at 60 frames per second (fps) and 10bit UHD video at 30fps on modern mobile consumer hardware, showcasing that VVC live decoding is possible already right before finalization of the standard.

Towards A Live Software Decoder Implementation For The Upcoming Versatile Video Coding (VVC) Codec