Smart decoder: A new paradigm for video coding

The coding efficiency of the new video coding standard, High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC), is strongly associated with better use of spatio-temporal redundancies thanks to an increased number of competing coding modes. However, this competition involves a massive increase in signaling bitrate which becomes a possible limit for the next generation of encoder. This paper proposes a new coding scheme that breaks with conventional approaches. It exploits a more complex decoder able to reproduce the choice of the encoder based on causal references, eliminating thus the need to signal coding modes and associated parameters. The general outline of this new codec and a proposed implementation are described in this paper. Experimental results under common test conditions report an average bitrate saving of 1.7% at the same quality compared to HEVC for a wide range of video sequences.