Abstract: A higher coding efficiency for coding a significance map indicating positions of significant transform coefficients within a transform coefficient block is achieved by the scan order by which the sequentially extracted syntax elements indicating, for associated positions within the transform coefficient block, as to whether at the respective position a significant or insignificant transform coefficient is situated, are sequentially associated to the positions of the transform coefficient block, among the positions of the transform coefficient block depends on the positions of the significant transform coefficients indicated by previously associated syntax elements. Alternatively, the first-type elements may be context-adaptively entropy decoded using contexts which are individually selected for each of the syntax elements dependent on a number of significant transform coefficients in a neighborhood of the respective syntax element, indicated as being significant by any of the preceding syntax elements.

Abstract: An idea used herein is to use the same function for the dependency of the context and the dependency of the symbolization parameter on previously coded/decoded transform coefficients. Using the same function—with varying function parameter—may even be used with respect to different transform block sizes and/or frequency portions of the transform blocks in case of the transform coefficients being spatially arranged in transform blocks. A further variant of this idea is to use the same function for the dependency of a symbolization parameter on previously coded/decoded transform coefficients for different sizes of the current transform coefficient's transform block, different information component types of the current transform coefficient's transform block and/or different frequency portions the current transform coefficient is located within the transform block.

Abstract: A coding efficiency increase is achieved by using a common signalization within the bitstream with regard to activation of merging and activation of the skip mode. One possible state of one or more syntax elements within the bitstream may signalize for a current sample set of a picture that the sample set is to be merged and has no prediction residual encoded and inserted into the bitstream. A common flag may signalize whether the coding parameters associated with a current sample set are to be set according to a merge candidate or to be retrieved from the bitstream, and whether the current sample set of the picture is to be reconstructed based on a prediction signal depending on the coding parameters associated with the current sample set, without any residual data, or to be reconstructed by refining the prediction signal depending on the coding parameters associated with the current sample set by means of residual data within the bitstream.

Abstract: A more efficient way of addressing different bit-depths, or different bit-depths and chroma sampling format requirements is achieved by using a low bit-depth and/or low-chroma resolution representation for providing a respective base layer data stream representing this low bit-depth and/or low-chroma resolution representation as well as for providing a higher bit-depth and/or higher chroma resolution representation so that a respective prediction residual may be encoded in order to obtain a higher bit-depth and/or higher chroma resolution representation. By this measure, an encoder is enabled to store a base-quality representation of a picture or a video sequence, which can be decoded by any legacy decoder or video decoder, together with an enhancement signal for higher bit-depth and/or reduced chroma sub-sampling, which may be ignored by legacy decoders or video decoders.

Abstract: Decomposing a value range of the respective syntax elements into a sequence of n partitions with coding the components of z laying within the respective partitions separately with at least one by VLC coding and with at least one by PIPE or entropy coding is used to greatly increase the compression efficiency at a moderate coding overhead since the coding scheme used may be better adapted to the syntax element statistics. Accordingly, syntax elements are decomposed into a respective number n of source symbols si with i=1 . . . n, the respective number n of source symbols depending on as to which of a sequence of n partitions into which a value range of the respective syntax elements is sub-divided, a value z of the respective syntax elements falls into, so that a sum of values of the respective number of source symbols si yields z, and, if n>1, for all i=1 . . . n?1, the value of si corresponds to a range of the ith partition.

Abstract: A further coding efficiency increase may be achieved if for a current block of a picture, for which the bit stream signals one of supported partitioning patterns, a reversal of the partitioning by block merging is avoided. In particular, if the signaled one of the supported partitioning patterns specifies a subdivision of the block into two or more further blocks, a removal of certain coding parameter candidates for all further blocks, except a first further block of the further blocks in a coding order, is performed. Particularly, those coding parameter candidates are removed from the set of coding parameter candidates for the respective further block, the coding parameters of which are the same as coding parameters associated with any of the further blocks which, when being merged with the respective further block, would result in one of the supported partitioning pattern. This avoids redundancy between partitioning coding and merging coding.

Abstract: A better compromise between encoding complexity and achievable rate distortion ratio, and/or to achieve a better rate distortion ratio is achieved by using multitree sub-divisioning not only in order to subdivide a continuous area, namely the sample array, into leaf regions, but using the intermediate regions also to share coding parameters among the corresponding collocated leaf blocks. By this measure, coding procedures performed in tiles—leaf regions—locally, may be associated with coding parameters individually without having to, however, explicitly transmit the whole coding parameters for each leaf region separately. Rather, similarities may effectively exploited by using the multitree subdivision.

Abstract: A higher coding efficiency for coding a significance map indicating positions of significant transform coefficients within a transform coefficient block is achieved by the scan order by which the sequentially extracted syntax elements indicating, for associated positions within the transform coefficient block, as to whether at the respective position a significant or insignificant transform coefficient is situated, are sequentially associated to the positions of the transform coefficient block, among the positions of the transform coefficient block depends on the positions of the significant transform coefficients indicated by previously associated syntax elements. Alternatively, the first-type elements may be context-adaptively entropy decoded using contexts which are individually selected for each of the syntax elements dependent on a number of significant transform coefficients in a neighborhood of the respective syntax element, indicated as being significant by any of the preceding syntax elements.

Abstract: A better rate distortion ratio is achieved by making interrelationships between coding parameters of different planes available for exploitation for the aim of redundancy reduction despite the additional overhead resulting from the need to signal the inter-plane prediction information to the decoder. In particular, the decision to use inter plane prediction or not may be performed for a plurality of planes individually. Additionally or alternatively, the decision may be done on a block basis considering one secondary plane.

Abstract: A decoder for decoding a data stream into which media data is coded has a mode switch configured to activate a low-complexity mode or a high-efficiency mode depending on the data stream, an entropy decoding engine configured to retrieve each symbol of a sequence of symbols by entropy decoding using a selected one of a plurality of entropy decoding schemes, a desymbolizer configured to desymbolize the sequence of symbols to obtain a sequence of syntax elements, a reconstructor configured to reconstruct the media data based on the sequence of syntax elements, selection depending on the activated low-complexity mode or the high-efficiency mode.

Abstract: Coding schemes for coding a spatially sampled information signal using sub-division and coding schemes for coding a sub-division or a multitree structure are described, wherein representative embodiments relate to picture and/or video coding applications.

Abstract: A better rate distortion ratio is achieved by making interrelationships between coding parameters of different planes available for exploitation for the aim of redundancy reduction despite the additional overhead resulting from the need to signal the inter-plane prediction information to the decoder. In particular, the decision to use inter plane prediction or not may be performed for a plurality of planes individually. Additionally or alternatively, the decision may be done on a block basis considering one secondary plane.

Abstract: A further coding efficiency increase may be achieved if for a current block of a picture, for which the bit stream signals one of supported partitioning patterns, a reversal of the partitioning by block merging is avoided. In particular, if the signaled one of the supported partitioning patterns specifies a subdivision of the block into two or more further blocks, a removal of certain coding parameter candidates for all further blocks, except a first further block of the further blocks in a coding order, is performed. Particularly, those coding parameter candidates are removed from the set of coding parameter candidates for the respective further block, the coding parameters of which are the same as coding parameters associated with any of the further blocks which, when being merged with the respective further block, would result in one of the supported partitioning pattern. This avoids redundancy between partitioning coding and merging coding.

Abstract: A better rate distortion ratio is achieved by making interrelationships between coding parameters of different planes available for exploitation for the aim of redundancy reduction despite the additional overhead resulting from the need to signal the inter-plane prediction information to the decoder. In particular, the decision to use inter plane prediction or not may be performed for a plurality of planes individually. Additionally or alternatively, the decision may be done on a block basis considering one secondary plane.

Abstract: A better rate distortion ratio is achieved by making interrelationships between coding parameters of different planes available for exploitation for the aim of redundancy reduction despite the additional overhead resulting from the need to signal the inter-plane prediction information to the decoder. In particular, the decision to use inter plane prediction or not may be performed for a plurality of planes individually. Additionally or alternatively, the decision may be done on a block basis considering one secondary plane.

Abstract: Coding schemes for coding a spatially sampled information signal using sub-division and coding schemes for coding a sub-division or a multitree structure are described, wherein representative embodiments relate to picture and/or video coding applications.

Abstract: A favorable merging or grouping of simply connected regions into which the array of information samples is sub-divided, is coded with a reduced amount of data. To this end, a predetermined relative locational relationship is defined enabling an identifying, for a predetermined simply connected region, of simply connected regions within the plurality of simply connected regions which have the predetermined relative locational relationship to the predetermined simply connected region. Namely, if the number is zero, a merge indicator for the predetermined simply connected region may be absent within the data stream. In other embodiments, spatial sub-division is performed depending on a first subset of syntax elements, followed by combining spatially neighboring simply connected regions depending on a second subset of syntax elements, to obtain an intermediate sub-division.

Abstract: A favorable merging or grouping of simply connected regions into which the array of information samples is sub-divided, is coded with a reduced amount of data. To this end, a predetermined relative locational relationship is defined enabling an identifying, for a predetermined simply connected region, of simply connected regions within the plurality of simply connected regions which have the predetermined relative locational relationship to the predetermined simply connected region. Namely, if the number is zero, a merge indicator for the predetermined simply connected region may be absent within the data stream. In other embodiments, spatial sub-division is performed depending on a first subset of syntax elements, followed by combining spatially neighboring simply connected regions depending on a second subset of syntax elements, to obtain an intermediate sub-division.

Abstract: A subblock-based coding of transform coefficient blocks of the enhancement layer is rendered more efficient. To this end, the subblock subdivision of the respective transform coefficient block is controlled on the basis of the base layer residual signal or the base layer signal. In particular, by exploiting the respective base layer hint, the subblocks may be made longer along a spatial frequency axis transverse to edge extensions observable from the base layer residual signal or the base layer signal.

Abstract: A favorable merging or grouping of simply connected regions into which the array of information samples is sub-divided, is coded with a reduced amount of data. To this end, a predetermined relative locational relationship is defined enabling an identifying, for a predetermined simply connected region, of simply connected regions within the plurality of simply connected regions which have the predetermined relative locational relationship to the predetermined simply connected region. Namely, if the number is zero, a merge indicator for the predetermined simply connected region may be absent within the data stream. In other embodiments, spatial sub-division is performed depending on a first subset of syntax elements, followed by combining spatially neighboring simply connected regions depending on a second subset of syntax elements, to obtain an intermediate sub-division.