Some embodiments use a flag to indicate that a set of chroma QP offset values from a neighboring quantization group will be used for the current quantization group. In some embodiments, this neighboring quantization group is spatially located at the left or at the top of the current quantization group. For example, some embodiments use a flag “cu_qp_update_signal” for indicating whether the chroma QP offset values of a neighboring quantization group will be used. In some embodiments, the flag “cu_qp_update_signal” is signaled before the “cu_chroma_qp_offset_abs” parameter at line 612 of 
If the flag is ‘1’, the current quantization group will provide an update for specifying its own chroma QP offset values. If the flag is ‘0’, the current quantization group will not update its set of chroma QP offset values, but rather inherit its chroma QP offset values from the last specified set of chroma QP offset values (e.g., from the neighboring quantization group at the left) or another previously specified chroma QP offset values (e.g., from the neighboring quantization group at the top, or another neighboring quantization group). If the neighboring chroma QP offset values are not available, some embodiments then use the default QP offset values from the PPS and/or the slice header.