The hierarchical video coding structure 100 corresponds to a sequence of video images. A sequence of video images is organized into layers of video data units at various levels of the hierarchy, where a video data unit at a higher level encompasses one or more video data units at lower levels. For example, a group of pictures (GOP) is a video data unit at a higher level of the hierarchy than a picture, a picture is a video data unit at a higher level of the hierarchy than a slice of the picture, a slice is video data unit at a higher level of the hierarchy than a coding tree unit, and so forth. In some embodiments, at least some parameters specified for a higher level video data unit are applicable to lower level video data units that the higher level video data unit encompasses. For example, in some embodiments, the picture level chroma QP offset specification for the picture 102 (from PPS 132) is applicable to all chroma QGs encompassed by the picture 102 (e.g., chroma QGs 121-123).