Single-loop SNR scalability using binary residual refinement coding

In scalable video coding, a stream contains multiple layers of different temporal resolution, spatial resolution, or quality. Each enhancement layer can utilize the information from the lower layers in order to improve the overall coding efficiency. In the draft scalable extension of HEVC the enhancement layer uses the lower layer reconstructed pixel values for prediction. While this dual-loop approach is efficient in terms of rate-distortion performance, it doubles the decoder complexity. In this paper a method is presented that allows for single-loop decoding using a new coefficient refinement scheme for the enhancement layer. The scheme conceptually allows for binary mapping between arbitrary quantizer step sizes in base and enhancement layer. Simulation results reveal a promising rate-distortion performance, especially for small quantizer deltas.