FIG. 8 illustrates a hierarchical video coding structure 800 that includes a table 890 of possible chroma QP offset values encoded at a higher level header. A chroma QG at a lower level of the video coding structure then uses an index to select one of the possible chroma QP offset values from the table 890 for computing the chroma QP values. The video coding structure 800 is similar to the video coding structure 100. The video coding structure 800 includes several pictures 801-803. Among these, the picture 802 includes several slices 811-812. The slice 811 includes several chroma QGs 821-823. The picture 802 has a picture parameter set (PPS) 831 that includes a set of chroma QP offset specifications that is applicable to all chroma QGs encompassed by the picture 802. As mentioned above by reference to FIG. 1 as well as equations (1) and (2), some embodiments also specify slice level chroma QP offset (not illustrated), and that the adaptation of chroma QP values is based on chroma QP offset parameters from multiple levels of the video coding hierarchy. Unlike the chroma QGs 121-123 of FIG. 1 that specify their own set of chroma QP offset values, each of the chroma QGs 821-823 selects a set of chroma QP offset values from the table 890.
