METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR BI-DIRECTIONAL PREDICTION WITHIN P-SLICES

摘要

Method and apparatuses are provided to enable bi-directional prediction (or bi-prediction) within P slices. A bi-predicted P slice is introduced herein as a new slice type in addition to existing I, P and B slices. A benefit of the new bi-predicted P slice is that it enables a video encoder to support temporal scalability without the need to use B pictures. Bi-predicted P slices enable the definition of a hierarchical GOP structure, which is a common method to allow temporal scalability in a video encoder. Another advantage of bi-predicted P slices is that it can improve coding efficiency over uni-directional P slices for some particular video content frames.