Overview of Versatile Video Coding (H.266/VVC) and Its Coding Performance Analysis

Versatile Video Coding (H.266/VVC) is the newest video coding standard jointly developed by the Joint Video Experts Team (JVET), which is organized by the ITU-T Video Coding Experts Group (VCEG) and the ISO/IEC Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG). H.266/VVC provides about 40% bitrate reduction compared with High Efficiency Video Coding (H.265/HEVC) for the same visual quality. This paper introduces in detail the core structure of H.266/VVC by highlighting its features within block partitioning structure, intra/inter prediction, transform, quantization, and in-loop filtering, compared to its predecessor (H.265/HEVC). H.266/VVC yields significantly improved the coding performance, but it increased the computational complexity, particularly for the encoder side, which remains a problem to be tackled for successful commercialization in the future. This paper examined the statistical performance of H.266/VVC coding tools from the bitstreams encoded by the VVC test model (VTM12.0) encoder through rate-distortion optimization under the JVET common test conditions. In addition, the complexity and performance analyses are conducted on the block partitioning structure and group of picture structure. It is expected that an optimized H.266/VVC encoder can be designed and developed by minimizing the coding loss based on the analysis data.