The CU may have various sizes depending on the QTBT splitting of the CTU. Hereinafter, a block corresponding to a CU (i.e., a leaf node of the QTBT) to be encoded or decoded is referred to as a “current block.”
The predictor 120 generates a prediction block by predicting a current block. The predictor 120 includes an intra-predictor 122 and an inter-predictor 124.
In general, current blocks within a picture may each be predictively coded. In general, prediction of the current blocks may be accomplished using an intra-prediction technique, which uses data from a picture containing the current blocks, or an inter-prediction technique, which uses data from a picture coded before the picture containing the current blocks. Inter-prediction includes both unidirectional prediction and bidirectional prediction.
For each inter-predicted block, a motion information set may be available. A set of motion information may include motion information about the forward and backward prediction directions. Here, the forward and backward prediction directions are two prediction directions in a bidirectional prediction mode, and the terms “forward direction” and “backward direction” do not necessarily have a geometric meaning. Instead, they generally correspond to whether to display a reference picture before (“backward direction”) or after (“forward direction”) the current picture. In some examples, the “forward” and “backward” prediction directions may correspond to reference picture list 0 (RefPicList0) and reference picture list 1 (RefPicList1) of the current picture.