Scalable video coding (SVC) was standardized as an extension of H.264/AVC by the JVT (Joint Video Team) in Nov. 2007. The biggest feature of SVC is multi-layered coding where two or more video sequences are compressed into a single bit-stream. This letter proposes a fast block mode decision algorithm in spatial enhancement layer of SVC. The proposed algorithm achieves early decision by limiting the number of candidate modes for block with certain characteristic called same motion vector block (SMVB). Our proposed method reduces the complexity, in terms of encoding time by up to 66.17%. Nevertheless, it shows negligible PSNR degradation by only up to 0.16 dB and increases the bit-rate by only up to 0.64%, respectively.

A bit-depth scalability is proposed in an adaptive way based on modified inter-layer predictions of the spatial scalability. A simple prediction for high dynamic range (HDR) sequences is implemented to reduce the redundancy of the residual signals between the base layer which contains low dynamic range (LDR) sequences and the enhancement layer which contains HDR sequences by using scaling and offset values.

In this letter, we propose an enhanced method for inter-layer motion prediction in scalable video coding (SVC). For inter-layer motion prediction, the use of refined motion data in the Fine Granular Scalability (FGS) layer is proposed instead of the conventional use of motion data in the base quality layer to reduce the inter-layer redundancy efficiently. Experimental results show that the proposed method enhances coding efficiency without increasing the computational complexity of the decoder.