Sequence-Level Reference Frames in Video Coding

The proliferation of low-cost DRAM chipsets now begins to allow for the consideration substantially-increased decoded picture buffers in advanced video coding standards such as HEVC, VVC, and Google VP9. At same time, increasing demand rapid scene changes multiple repetitions entertainment or broadcast content indicates that extending frame referencing interval tens minutes even entire sequence may offer gains, long one is able identify similarity a computationally- memory-efficient manner. Motivated by these observations, we propose “stitching” method defines reference buffer selection algorithm. Our proposal extends inter-frame length sequences. algorithm uses well-established feature descriptor methods describe structural elements compact semantically-rich We combine descriptors with scoring mechanism order select frames be “stitched” encoders like VP9 without breaking standard compliance. evaluation on synthetic real-world sequences HEVC VVC shows our offers significant rate complexity memory requirements remain manageable practical decoders.