This relates generally to scalable video codecs.
Scalable video codecs enable different picture quality levels to be delivered to different customers, depending on what type of service they prefer. Lower quality video services may be less expensive than higher quality video services.
In a scalable video coder, a lower bit depth may be called a baseline layer and a higher bit depth may be called an enhancement layer. The greater the bit depth, the better the quality of the video.
In a scalable video codec, an encoder and decoder may be provided as one unit. In some cases, only an encoder may be provided and, in other cases, only a decoder may be provided. The scalable video coder enables the system to operate with at least the baseline layer. Thus, in low cost systems, only the baseline layer may be utilized and, in higher cost, more advanced systems, the enhancement layer may be utilized.
It is advantageous to derive the enhancement layer from the baseline layer. To this end, inverse tone mapping may be utilized to increase the bit depth of the baseline layer to the bit depth of the enhancement layer. In some cases, for example, the baseline layer may be 8 bits per pixel and the enhancement may be 10, 12, or higher bits per pixel.