Luma-aware multi-model rate-control for HDR content in HEVC

Rate control (RC) is an important tool that helps to control the bit rate of the compressed media. Current HEVC implementations include an RC algorithm, based on a R - λ model, that does not consider the wide range of luma values depicted in HDR content. This paper proposes a multi-R - λ-model approach for RC in HEVC that accurately attains a target bit rate while improving the reconstruction quality of HDR content, especially for very bright regions. Results, in terms of the mPSNR and HDR-VDP-2 metrics, confirm the advantages of our approach compared to the current RC algorithm in HEVC.