cellar M. Niedermayer Internet-Draft January 8, 2017 Intended status: Standards Track Expires: July 12, 2017

FF Video Codec 1
draft-niedermayer-cellar-ffv1-01

# Abstract

This document defines FFV1, a lossless intra-frame video encoding format. FFV1 is designed to efficiently compress video data in a variety of pixel formats. Compared to uncompressed video, FFV1 offers storage compression, frame fixity, and self-description, which makes FFV1 useful as a preservation or intermediate video format.

# Status of This Memo

This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.

Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). Note that other groups may also distribute working documents as Internet-Drafts. The list of current Internet-Drafts is at http://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.

Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any time. It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."

This Internet-Draft will expire on July 12, 2017.

This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal Provisions Relating to IETF Documents (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of publication of this document. Please review these documents carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect to this document. Code Components extracted from this document must include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as described in the Simplified BSD License.

# 1.Introduction

The FFV1 video codec is a simple and efficient lossless intra-frame only codec.

This document assumes familiarity with mathematical and coding concepts such as Range coding and YCbCr colorspaces.

# 2.Notation and Conventions

The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in [RFC2119].

# 2.1.Definitions

ESC: An ESCape symbol to indicate that the symbol to be stored is too large for normal storage and that an alternate storage method.

MSB: Most Significant Bit, the bit that can cause the largest change in magnitude of the symbol.

RCT: Reversible Color Transform, a near linear, exactly reversible integer transform that converts between RGB and YCbCr representations of a sample.

VLC: Variable Length Code.

RGB: A reference to the method of storing the value of a sample by using three numeric values that represent Red, Green, and Blue.

YCbCr: A reference to the method of storing the value of a sample by using three numeric values that represent the luminance of the sample (Y) and the chrominance of the sample (Cb and Cr).

TBA: To Be Announced. Used in reference to the development of future iterations of the FFV1 specification.

# 2.2.Conventions

Note: the operators and the order of precedence are the same as used in the C programming language [ISO.9899.1990].

# 2.2.1.Arithmetic operators

a + b means a plus b.

a - b means a minus b.

-a means negation of a.

a * b means a multiplied by b.

a / b means a divided by b.

a & b means bit-wise "and" of a and b.

a | b means bit-wise "or" of a and b.

a >> b means arithmetic right shift of two’s complement integer representation of a by b binary digits.

a << b means arithmetic left shift of two’s complement integer representation of a by b binary digits.

# 2.2.2.Assignment operators

a = b means a is assigned b.

a++ is equivalent to a is assigned a + 1.

a-- is equivalent to a is assigned a - 1.

a += b is equivalent to a is assigned a + b.

a -= b is equivalent to a is assigned a - b.

a *= b is equivalent to a is assigned a * b.

# 2.2.3.Comparison operators

a > b means a is greater than b.

a >= b means a is greater than or equal to b.

a < b means a is less than b.

a <= b means a is less than or equal b.

a == b means a is equal to b.

a != b means a is not equal to b.

a && b means Boolean logical "and" of a and b.

a || b means Boolean logical "or" of a and b.

!a means Boolean logical "not".

a ? b : c if a is true, then b, otherwise c.

# 2.2.4.Mathematical functions

\lfloor a \rfloor the largest integer less than or equal to a

\lceil a \rceil the smallest integer greater than or equal to a

abs(a) the absolute value of a, i.e. abs(a) = sign(a)*a

log2(a) the base-two logarithm of a

min(a,b) the smallest of two values a and b

# 2.2.5.Order of operation precedence

When order of precedence is not indicated explicitly by use of parentheses, operations are evaluated in the following order (from top to bottom, operations of same precedence being evaluated from left to right). This order of operations is based on the order of operations used in Standard C.

a++, a--
!a, -a
a * b, a / b, a % b
a + b, a - b
a << b, a >> b
a < b, a <= b, a > b, a >= b
a == b, a != b
a & b
a | b
a && b
a || b
a ? b : c
a = b, a += b, a -= b, a *= b


# 2.2.6.Range

a...b means any value starting from a to b, inclusive.

# 2.2.7.NumBytes

NumBytes is a non-negative integer that expresses the size in 8-bit octets of particular FFV1 components such as the Configuration Record and Frame. FFV1 relies on its container to store the NumBytes values, see Section 4.1.3.

# 2.2.8.1.remaining_bits_in_bitstream

remaining_bits_in_bitstream( ) means the count of remaining bits after the current position in that bitstream component. It is computed from the NumBytes value multiplied by 8 minus the count of bits of that component already read by the bitstream parser.

# 2.2.8.2.byte_aligned

byte_aligned( ) is true if remaining_bits_in_bitstream( NumBytes ) is a multiple of 8, otherwise false.

# 3.General Description

Each frame is split in 1 to 4 planes (Y, Cb, Cr, Alpha). In the case of the normal YCbCr colorspace the Y plane is coded first followed by the Cb and Cr planes, if an Alpha/transparency plane exists, it is coded last. In the case of the JPEG2000-RCT colorspace the lines are interleaved to improve caching efficiency since it is most likely that the RCT will immediately be converted to RGB during decoding; the interleaved coding order is also Y, Cb, Cr, Alpha.

Samples within a plane are coded in raster scan order (left->right, top->bottom). Each sample is predicted by the median predictor from samples in the same plane and the difference is stored see Section 3.6.

# 3.1.Border

For the purpose of the predictor and context, samples above the coded slice are assumed to be 0; samples to the right of the coded slice are identical to the closest left sample; samples to the left of the coded slice are identical to the top right sample (if there is one), otherwise 0.

0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 a b c c
0 a d e e
0 d f g h h

# 3.2.Median predictor

median(left, top, left + top - diag)

left, top, diag are the left, top and left-top samples

Note, this is also used in [ISO.14495-1.1999] and [HuffYUV].

Exception for the media predictor: if colorspace_type == 0 && bits_per_raw_sample == 16 && ( coder_type == 1 || coder_type == 2 ), the following media predictor MUST be used:

median(left16s, top16s, left16s + top16s - diag16s)

with: - left16s = left >= 32768 ? ( left - 65536 ) : left - top16s = top >= 32768 ? ( top - 65536 ) : top - diag16s = diag >= 32768 ? ( diag - 65536 ) : diag

Background: a two's complement signed 16-bit signed integer was used for storing pixel values in all known implementations of FFV1 bitstream. So in some circumstances, the most significant bit was wrongly interpreted (used as a sign bit instead of the 16th bit of an unsigned integer). Note that when the issue is discovered, the only configuration of all known implementations being impacted is 16-bit YCbCr color space with Range Coder coder, as other potentially impacted configurations (e.g. 15/16-bit JPEG2000-RCT color space with Range Coder coder, or 16-bit any color space with Golomb Rice coder) were implemented nowhere. In the meanwhile, 16-bit JPEG2000-RCT color space with Range Coder coder was implemented without this issue in one implementation and validated by one conformance checker. It is expected (to be confirmed) to remove this exception for the media predictor in the next version of the bitstream.

# 3.3.Context

+---+---+---+---+
|   |   | T |   |
+---+---+---+---+
|   |tl | t |tr |
+---+---+---+---+
| L | l | X |   |
+---+---+---+---+


The quantized sample differences L-l, l-tl, tl-t, t-T, t-tr are used as context:

context=Q_{0}[l-tl]+\left|Q_{0}\right|(Q_{1}[tl-t]+\left|Q_{1}\right|(Q_{2}[t-tr]+\left|Q_{2}\right|(Q_{3}[L-l]+\left|Q_{3}\right|Q_{4}[T-t])))

If the context is smaller than 0 then -context is used and the difference between the sample and its predicted value is encoded with a flipped sign.

# 3.4.Quantization

There are 5 quantization tables for the 5 sample differences, both the number of quantization steps and their distribution are stored in the bitstream. Each quantization table has exactly 256 entries, and the 8 least significant bits of the sample difference are used as index:

Q_{i}[a-b]=Table_{i}[(a-b)\&255]

Cb=b-g

Cr=r-g

Y=g+(Cb+Cr)>>2

g=Y-(Cb+Cr)>>2

r=Cr+g

b=Cb+g

# 3.6.Coding of the sample difference

Instead of coding the n+1 bits of the sample difference with Huffman-, or Range coding (or n+2 bits, in the case of RCT), only the n (or n+1) least significant bits are used, since this is sufficient to recover the original sample. In the equation below, the term "bits" represents bits_per_raw_sample+1 for RCT or bits_per_raw_sample otherwise:

coder\_input=\left[\left(sample\_difference+2^{bits-1}\right)\&\left(2^{bits}-1\right)\right]-2^{bits-1}

# 3.6.1.Range coding mode

Early experimental versions of FFV1 used the CABAC Arithmetic coder from H.264 as defined in [ISO.14496-10.2014] but due to the uncertain patent/royalty situation, as well as its slightly worse performance, CABAC was replaced by a Range coder based on an algorithm defined by G. Nigel and N. Martin in 1979 [range-coding].

# 3.6.1.1.Range binary values

To encode binary digits efficiently a Range coder is used. $C_{i}$ is the i-th Context. $B_{i}$ is the i-th byte of the bytestream. $b_{i}$ is the i-th Range coded binary value, $S_{0,i}$ is the i-th initial state, which is 128. The length of the bytestream encoding n binary symbols is $j_{n}$ bytes.

r_{i}=\left\lfloor \frac{R_{i}S_{i,C_{i}}}{2^{8}}\right\rfloor

\begin{array}{ccccccccc} S_{i+1,C_{i}}=zero\_state_{S_{i,C_{i}}} & \wedge & l{}_{i}=L_{i} & \wedge & t_{i}=R_{i}-r_{i} & \Longleftarrow & b_{i}=0 & \Longleftrightarrow & L_{i}<R_{i}-r_{i}\\ S_{i+1,C_{i}}=one\_state_{S_{i,C_{i}}} & \wedge & l_{i}=L_{i}-R_{i}+r_{i} & \wedge & t_{i}=r_{i} & \Longleftarrow & b_{i}=1 & \Longleftrightarrow & L_{i}\geq R_{i}-r_{i} \end{array}

\begin{array}{ccc} S_{i+1,k}=S_{i,k} & \Longleftarrow & C_{i}\neq k \end{array}

\begin{array}{ccccccc} R_{i+1}=2^{8}t_{i} & \wedge & L_{i+1}=2^{8}l_{i}+B_{j_{i}} & \wedge & j_{i+1}=j_{i}+1 & \Longleftarrow & t_{i}<2^{8}\\ R_{i+1}=t_{i} & \wedge & L_{i+1}=l_{i} & \wedge & j_{i+1}=j_{i} & \Longleftarrow & t_{i}\geq2^{8} \end{array}

R_{0}=65280

L_{0}=2^{8}B_{0}+B_{1}

j_{0}=2

# 3.6.1.2.Range non binary values

To encode scalar integers, it would be possible to encode each bit separately and use the past bits as context. However that would mean 255 contexts per 8-bit symbol which is not only a waste of memory but also requires more past data to reach a reasonably good estimate of the probabilities. Alternatively assuming a Laplacian distribution and only dealing with its variance and mean (as in Huffman coding) would also be possible, however, for maximum flexibility and simplicity, the chosen method uses a single symbol to encode if a number is 0 and if not encodes the number using its exponent, mantissa and sign. The exact contexts used are best described by the following code, followed by some comments.

function                                                      | type
--------------------------------------------------------------|-----
void put_symbol(RangeCoder *c, uint8_t *state, int v, int \   |
is_signed) {                                                  |
int i;                                                    |
put_rac(c, state+0, !v);                                  |
if (v) {                                                  |
int a= abs(v);                                        |
int e= log2(a);                                       |
|
for (i=0; i<e; i++)                                   |
put_rac(c, state+1+min(i,9), 1);  //1..10         |
|
put_rac(c, state+1+min(i,9), 0);                      |
for (i=e-1; i>=0; i--)                                |
put_rac(c, state+22+min(i,9), (a>>i)&1); //22..31 |
|
if (is_signed)                                        |
put_rac(c, state+11 + min(e, 10), v < 0); //11..21|
}                                                         |
}                                                             |


# 3.6.1.3.Initial values for the context model

At keyframes all Range coder state variables are set to their initial state.

# 3.6.1.4.State transition table

one\_state_{i}=default\_state\_transition_{i}+state\_transition\_delta_{i}

zero\_state_{i}=256-one\_state_{256-i}

# 3.6.1.5.default_state_transition

  0,  0,  0,  0,  0,  0,  0,  0, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27,

28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42,

43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 56, 57,

58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73,

74, 75, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88,

89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99,100,101,102,103,

104,105,106,107,108,109,110,111,112,113,114,114,115,116,117,118,

119,120,121,122,123,124,125,126,127,128,129,130,131,132,133,133,

134,135,136,137,138,139,140,141,142,143,144,145,146,147,148,149,

150,151,152,152,153,154,155,156,157,158,159,160,161,162,163,164,

165,166,167,168,169,170,171,171,172,173,174,175,176,177,178,179,

180,181,182,183,184,185,186,187,188,189,190,190,191,192,194,194,

195,196,197,198,199,200,201,202,202,204,205,206,207,208,209,209,

210,211,212,213,215,215,216,217,218,219,220,220,222,223,224,225,

226,227,227,229,229,230,231,232,234,234,235,236,237,238,239,240,

241,242,243,244,245,246,247,248,248,  0,  0,  0,  0,  0,  0,  0,


# 3.6.1.6.alternative state transition table

The alternative state transition table has been build using iterative minimization of frame sizes and generally performs better than the default. To use it, the coder_type MUST be set to 2 and the difference to the default MUST be stored in the parameters. The reference implementation of FFV1 in FFmpeg uses this table by default at the time of this writing when Range coding is used.

  0, 10, 10, 10, 10, 16, 16, 16, 28, 16, 16, 29, 42, 49, 20, 49,

59, 25, 26, 26, 27, 31, 33, 33, 33, 34, 34, 37, 67, 38, 39, 39,

40, 40, 41, 79, 43, 44, 45, 45, 48, 48, 64, 50, 51, 52, 88, 52,

53, 74, 55, 57, 58, 58, 74, 60,101, 61, 62, 84, 66, 66, 68, 69,

87, 82, 71, 97, 73, 73, 82, 75,111, 77, 94, 78, 87, 81, 83, 97,

85, 83, 94, 86, 99, 89, 90, 99,111, 92, 93,134, 95, 98,105, 98,

105,110,102,108,102,118,103,106,106,113,109,112,114,112,116,125,

115,116,117,117,126,119,125,121,121,123,145,124,126,131,127,129,

165,130,132,138,133,135,145,136,137,139,146,141,143,142,144,148,

147,155,151,149,151,150,152,157,153,154,156,168,158,162,161,160,

172,163,169,164,166,184,167,170,177,174,171,173,182,176,180,178,

175,189,179,181,186,183,192,185,200,187,191,188,190,197,193,196,

197,194,195,196,198,202,199,201,210,203,207,204,205,206,208,214,

209,211,221,212,213,215,224,216,217,218,219,220,222,228,223,225,

226,224,227,229,240,230,231,232,233,234,235,236,238,239,237,242,

241,243,242,244,245,246,247,248,249,250,251,252,252,253,254,255,


# 3.6.2.Huffman coding mode

This coding mode uses Golomb Rice codes. The VLC code is split into 2 parts, the prefix stores the most significant bits, the suffix stores the k least significant bits or stores the whole number in the ESC case. The end of the bitstream (of the frame) is filled with 0-bits until that the bitstream contains a multiple of 8 bits.

# 3.6.2.1.Prefix

bits value
1 0
01 1
... ...
0000 0000 0001 11
0000 0000 0000 ESC

# 3.6.2.2.Suffix

non ESC the k least significant bits MSB first
ESC the value - 11, in MSB first order, ESC may only be used if the value cannot be coded as non ESC

# 3.6.2.3.Examples

k bits value
0 1 0
0 001 2
2 1 00 0
2 1 10 2
2 01 01 5
any 000000000000 10000000 139

# 3.6.2.4.Run mode

Run mode is entered when the context is 0 and left as soon as a non-0 difference is found. The level is identical to the predicted one. The run and the first different level is coded.

# 3.6.2.5.Run length coding

The run value is encoded in 2 parts, the prefix part stores the more significant part of the run as well as adjusting the run_index which determines the number of bits in the less significant part of the run. The 2nd part of the value stores the less significant part of the run as it is. The run_index is reset for each plane and slice to 0.

function                                                      | type
--------------------------------------------------------------|-----
log2_run[41]={                                                |
0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1, 1,                                      |
2, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 3,                                      |
4, 4, 5, 5, 6, 6, 7, 7,                                      |
8, 9,10,11,12,13,14,15,                                      |
16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,                                      |
24,                                                           |
};                                                            |
|
if (run_count == 0 && run_mode == 1) {                        |
if (get_bits1()) {                                        |
run_count = 1 << log2_run[run_index];                 |
if (x + run_count <= w)                               |
run_index++;                                      |
} else {                                                  |
if (log2_run[run_index])                              |
run_count = get_bits(log2_run[run_index]);        |
else                                                  |
run_count = 0;                                    |
if (run_index)                                        |
run_index--;                                      |
run_mode = 2;                                         |
}                                                         |
}                                                             |


The log2_run function is also used within [ISO.14495-1.1999].

# 3.6.2.6.Level coding

Level coding is identical to the normal difference coding with the exception that the 0 value is removed as it cannot occur:

    if (diff>0) diff--;
encode(diff);


Note, this is different from JPEG-LS, which doesn’t use prediction in run mode and uses a different encoding and context model for the last difference On a small set of test samples the use of prediction slightly improved the compression rate.

# 4.Bitstream

Symbol Definition
u(n) unsigned big endian integer using n bits
sg Golomb Rice coded signed scalar symbol coded with the method described in Section 3.6.2
br Range coded Boolean (1-bit) symbol with the method described in Section 3.6.1.1
ur Range coded unsigned scalar symbol coded with the method described in Section 3.6.1.2
sr Range coded signed scalar symbol coded with the method described in Section 3.6.1.2

The same context which is initialized to 128 is used for all fields in the header.

The following MUST be provided by external means during initialization of the decoder:

frame_pixel_width is defined as frame width in pixels.

frame_pixel_height is defined as frame height in pixels.

Default values at the decoder initialization phase:

ConfigurationRecordIsPresent is set to 0.

# 4.1.Configuration Record

In the case of a bitstream with version >= 3, a Configuration Record is stored in the underlying container, at the track header level. It contains the parameters used for all frames. The size of the Configuration Record, NumBytes, is supplied by the underlying container.

function                                                      | type
--------------------------------------------------------------|-----
ConfigurationRecord( NumBytes ) {                             |
ConfigurationRecordIsPresent = 1                          |
Parameters( )                                             |
while( remaining_bits_in_bitstream( NumBytes ) > 32 )     |
reserved_for_future_use                               | u(1)
configuration_record_crc_parity                           | u(32)
}                                                             |


# 4.1.1.reserved_for_future_use

reserved_for_future_use has semantics that are reserved for future use. Encoders conforming to this version of this specification SHALL NOT write this value. Decoders conforming to this version of this specification SHALL ignore its value.

# 4.1.2.configuration_record_crc_parity

configuration_record_crc_parity 32 bits that are chosen so that the Configuration Record as a whole has a crc remainder of 0. This is equivalent to storing the crc remainder in the 32-bit parity. The CRC generator polynomial used is the standard IEEE CRC polynomial (0x104C11DB7) with initial value 0.

# 4.1.3.Mapping FFV1 into Containers

This Configuration Record can be placed in any file format supporting Configuration Records, fitting as much as possible with how the file format uses to store Configuration Records. The Configuration Record storage place and NumBytes are currently defined and supported by this version of this specification for the following container formats:

# 4.1.3.1.In AVI File Format

The Configuration Record extends the stream format chunk ("AVI ", "hdlr", "strl", "strf") with the ConfigurationRecord bitstream. See [AVI] for more information about chunks.

NumBytes is defined as the size, in bytes, of the strf chunk indicated in the chunk header minus the size of the stream format structure.

# 4.1.3.2.In ISO/IEC 14496-12 (MP4 File Format)

The Configuration Record extends the sample description box ("moov", "trak", "mdia", "minf", "stbl", "stsd") with a "glbl" box which contains the ConfigurationRecord bitstream. See [ISO.14496-12.2015] for more information about boxes.

NumBytes is defined as the size, in bytes, of the "glbl" box indicated in the box header minus the size of the box header.

# 4.1.3.3.In NUT File Format

NumBytes is defined as the size, in bytes, of the codec_specific_data element as indicated in the "length" field of codec_specific_data

# 4.2.Frame

A frame consists of the keyframe field, parameters (if version <=1), and a sequence of independent slices.

function                                                      | type
--------------------------------------------------------------|-----
Frame( NumBytes ) {                                           |
keyframe                                                  | br
if (keyframe && !ConfigurationRecordIsPresent             |
Parameters( )                                         |
while ( remaining_bits_in_bitstream( NumBytes ) )         |
Slice( )                                              |
}                                                             |


# 4.3.Slice

function                                                      | type
--------------------------------------------------------------|-----
Slice( ) {                                                    |
if (version >= 3)                                         |
SliceContent( )                                           |
if (coder_type == 0)                                      |
while (!byte_aligned())                               |
if (version >= 3)                                         |
SliceFooter( )                                        |
}                                                             |


padding specifies a bit without any significance and used only for byte alignment. MUST be 0.

function                                                      | type
--------------------------------------------------------------|-----
slice_x                                                   | ur
slice_y                                                   | ur
slice_width - 1                                           | ur
slice_height - 1                                          | ur
for( i = 0; i < quant_table_index_count; i++ )            |
quant_table_index [ i ]                               | ur
picture_structure                                         | ur
sar_num                                                   | ur
sar_den                                                   | ur
if (version >= 4) {                                       |
reset_contexts                                        | br
slice_coding_mode                                     | ur
}                                                          |
}                                                             |


# 4.4.1.slice_x

slice_x indicates the x position on the slice raster formed by num_h_slices. Inferred to be 0 if not present.

# 4.4.2.slice_y

slice_y indicates the y position on the slice raster formed by num_v_slices. Inferred to be 0 if not present.

# 4.4.3.slice_width

slice_width indicates the width on the slice raster formed by num_h_slices. Inferred to be 1 if not present.

# 4.4.4.slice_height

slice_height indicates the height on the slice raster formed by num_v_slices. Inferred to be 1 if not present.

# 4.4.5.quant_table_index_count

quant_table_index_count is defined as 1 + ( ( chroma_planes || version <= 3 ) ? 1 : 0 ) + ( alpha_plane ? 1 : 0 ).

# 4.4.6.quant_table_index

quant_table_index indicates the index to select the quantization table set and the initial states for the slice. Inferred to be 0 if not present.

# 4.4.7.picture_structure

picture_structure specifies the picture structure. Inferred to be 0 if not present.

value picture structure used
0 unknown
1 top field first
2 bottom field first
3 progressive
Other reserved for future use

# 4.4.8.sar_num

sar_num specifies the sample aspect ratio numerator. Inferred to be 0 if not present. MUST be 0 if sample aspect ratio is unknown.

# 4.4.9.sar_den

sar_den specifies the sample aspect ratio numerator. Inferred to be 0 if not present. MUST be 0 if sample aspect ratio is unknown.

# 4.4.10.reset_contexts

reset_contexts indicates if slice contexts must be reset. Inferred to be 0 if not present.

# 4.4.11.slice_coding_mode

slice_coding_mode indicates the slice coding mode. Inferred to be 0 if not present.

value slice coding mode
0 normal Range Coding or VLC
1 raw PCM
Other reserved for future use

# 4.5.Slice Content

function                                                      | type
--------------------------------------------------------------|-----
SliceContent( ) {                                             |
if (colorspace_type == 0) {                               |
for( p = 0; p < primary_color_count; p++ ) {          |
for( y = 0; y < plane_pixel_height[ p ]; y++ )    |
Line( p, y )                                  |
} else if (colorspace_type == 1) {                        |
for( y = 0; y < slice_pixel_height; y++ )             |
for( p = 0; p < primary_color_count; p++ ) {      |
Line( p, y )                                  |
}                                                         |
}                                                             |


# 4.5.1.primary_color_count

primary_color_count is defined as 1 + ( chroma_planes ? 2 : 0 ) + ( alpha_plane ? 1 : 0 ).

# 4.5.2.plane_pixel_height

plane_pixel_height[ p ] is the height in pixels of plane p of the slice. plane_pixel_height[ 0 ] and plane_pixel_height[ 1 + ( chroma_planes ? 2 : 0 ) ] value is slice_pixel_height if chroma_planes is set to 1, plane_pixel_height[ 1 ] and plane_pixel_height[ 2 ] value is $\lceil slice_pixel_height / v_chroma_subsample \rceil$

# 4.5.3.slice_pixel_height

slice_pixel_height is the height in pixels of the slice. Its value is $\lfloor ( slice_y + slice_height ) * slice_pixel_height / num_v_slices \rfloor - slice_pixel_y$

# 4.5.4.slice_pixel_y

slice_pixel_y is the slice vertical position in pixels. Its value is $\lfloor slice_y * frame_pixel_height / num_v_slices \rfloor$

# 4.6.Line

function                                                      | type
--------------------------------------------------------------|-----
Line( p, y ) {                                                |
if (colorspace_type == 0) {                               |
for( x = 0; x < plane_pixel_width[ p ]; x++ )         |
Pixel( p, y, x )                                  |
} else if (colorspace_type == 1) {                        |
for( x = 0; x < slice_pixel_width; x++ )              |
Pixel( p, y, x )                                  |
}                                                         |
}                                                             |


# 4.6.1.plane_pixel_width

plane_pixel_width[ p ] is the width in pixels of plane p of the slice. plane_pixel_width[ 0 ] and plane_pixel_width[ 1 + ( chroma_planes ? 2 : 0 ) ] value is slice_pixel_width if chroma_planes is set to 1, plane_pixel_width[ 1 ] and plane_pixel_width[ 2 ] value is $\lceil slice_pixel_width / v_chroma_subsample \rceil$

# 4.6.2.slice_pixel_width

slice_pixel_width is the width in pixels of the slice. Its value is $\lfloor ( slice_x + slice_width ) * slice_pixel_width / num_h_slices \rfloor - slice_pixel_x$

# 4.6.3.slice_pixel_x

slice_pixel_x is the slice horizontal position in pixels. Its value is $\lfloor slice_x * frame_pixel_width / num_h_slices \rfloor$

# 4.7.Slice Footer

Note: slice footer is always byte aligned.

function                                                      | type
--------------------------------------------------------------|-----
SliceFooter( ) {                                              |
slice_size                                                | u(24)
if (ec) {                                                 |
error_status                                          | u(8)
slice_crc_parity                                      | u(32)
}                                                         |
}                                                             |


# 4.7.1.slice_size

slice_size indicates the size of the slice in bytes. Note: this allows finding the start of slices before previous slices have been fully decoded. And allows this way parallel decoding as well as error resilience.

# 4.7.2.error_status

error_status specifies the error status.

value error status
0 no error
1 slice contains a correctable error
2 slice contains a uncorrectable error
Other reserved for future use

# 4.7.3.slice_crc_parity

slice_crc_parity 32 bits that are chosen so that the slice as a whole has a crc remainder of 0. This is equivalent to storing the crc remainder in the 32-bit parity. The CRC generator polynomial used is the standard IEEE CRC polynomial (0x104C11DB7) with initial value 0.

# 4.8.Parameters

function                                                      | type
--------------------------------------------------------------|-----
Parameters( ) {                                               |
version                                                   | ur
if (version >= 3)                                         |
micro_version                                         | ur
coder_type                                                | ur
if (coder_type > 1)                                       |
for (i = 1; i < 256; i++)                             |
state_transition_delta[ i ]                       | sr
colorspace_type                                           | ur
if (version >= 1)                                         |
bits_per_raw_sample                                   | ur
chroma_planes                                             | br
log2( h_chroma_subsample )                                | ur
log2( v_chroma_subsample )                                | ur
alpha_plane                                               | br
if (version >= 3) {                                       |
num_h_slices - 1                                      | ur
num_v_slices - 1                                      | ur
quant_table_count                                     | ur
}                                                         |
for( i = 0; i < quant_table_count; i++ )                  |
QuantizationTable( i )                                |
if (version >= 3) {                                       |
for( i = 0; i < quant_table_count; i++ ) {            |
states_coded                                      | br
if (states_coded)                                 |
for( j = 0; j < context_count[ i ]; j++ )     |
for( k = 0; k < CONTEXT_SIZE; k++ )       |
initial_state_delta[ i ][ j ][ k ]    | sr
}                                                     |
ec                                                    | ur
intra                                                 | ur
}                                                         |
}                                                             |


# 4.8.1.version

version specifies the version of the bitstream. Each version is incompatible with others versions: decoders SHOULD reject a file due to unknown version. Decoders SHOULD reject a file with version =< 1 && ConfigurationRecordIsPresent == 1. Decoders SHOULD reject a file with version >= 3 && ConfigurationRecordIsPresent == 0.

value version
0 FFV1 version 0
1 FFV1 version 1
2 reserved*
3 FFV1 version 3
Other reserved for future use

* Version 2 was never enabled in the encoder thus version 2 files SHOULD NOT exist, and this document does not describe them to keep the text simpler.

# 4.8.2.micro_version

micro_version specifies the micro-version of the bitstream. After a version is considered stable (a micro-version value is assigned to be the first stable variant of a specific version), each new micro-version after this first stable variant is compatible with the previous micro-version: decoders SHOULD NOT reject a file due to an unknown micro-version equal or above the micro-version considered as stable.

Meaning of micro_version for version 3:

value micro_version
0...3 reserved*
4 first stable variant
Other reserved for future use

* were development versions which may be incompatible with the stable variants.

Meaning of micro_version for version 4 (note: at the time of writing of this specification, version 4 is not considered stable so the first stable version value is to be announced in the future):

value micro_version
0...TBA reserved*
TBA first stable variant
Other reserved for future use

* were development versions which may be incompatible with the stable variants.

# 4.8.3.coder_type

coder_type specifies the coder used

value coder used
0 Golomb Rice
1 Range Coder with default state transition table
2 Range Coder with custom state transition table
Other reserved for future use

# 4.8.4.state_transition_delta

state_transition_delta specifies the Range coder custom state transition table. If state_transition_delta is not present in the bitstream, all Range coder custom state transition table elements are assumed to be 0.

# 4.8.5.colorspace_type

colorspace_type specifies the color space.

value color space used
0 YCbCr
1 JPEG2000-RCT
Other reserved for future use

# 4.8.6.chroma_planes

chroma_planes indicates if chroma (color) planes are present.

value color space used
0 chroma planes are not present
1 chroma planes are present

# 4.8.7.bits_per_raw_sample

bits_per_raw_sample indicates the number of bits for each luma and chroma sample. Inferred to be 8 if not present.

value bits for each luma and chroma sample
0 reserved*
Other the actual bits for each luma and chroma sample

* Encoders MUST NOT store bits_per_raw_sample = 0 Decoders SHOULD accept and interpret bits_per_raw_sample = 0 as 8.

# 4.8.8.h_chroma_subsample

h_chroma_subsample indicates the subsample factor between luma and chroma width ($chroma_width=2^{-log2_h_chroma_subsample}luma_width$)

# 4.8.9.v_chroma_subsample

v_chroma_subsample indicates the subsample factor between luma and chroma height ($chroma_height=2^{-log2_v_chroma_subsample}luma_height$)

# 4.8.10.alpha_plane

alpha_plane

indicates if a transparency plane is present.

value color space used
0 transparency plane is not present
1 transparency plane is present

# 4.8.11.num_h_slices

num_h_slices indicates the number of horizontal elements of the slice raster. Inferred to be 1 if not present.

# 4.8.12.num_v_slices

num_v_slices indicates the number of vertical elements of the slice raster. Inferred to be 1 if not present.

# 4.8.13.quant_table_count

quant_table_count indicates the number of quantization table sets. Inferred to be 1 if not present.

# 4.8.14.states_coded

states_coded indicates if the respective quantization table set has the initial states coded. Inferred to be 0 if not present.

value initial states
0 initial states are not present and are assumed to be all 128
1 initial states are present

# 4.8.15.initial_state_delta

initial_state_delta [ i ][ j ][ k ] indicates the initial Range coder state, it is encoded using k as context index and pred = j ? initial_states[ i ][j - 1][ k ] : 128 initial_state[ i ][ j ][ k ] = ( pred + initial_state_delta[ i ][ j ][ k ] ) & 255

# 4.8.16.ec

ec indicates the error detection/correction type.

value error detection/correction type
0 32-bit CRC on the global header
1 32-bit CRC per slice and the global header
Other reserved for future use

# 4.8.17.intra

intra indicates the relationship between frames. Inferred to be 0 if not present.

value relationship
0 frames are independent or dependent (keyframes and non keyframes)
1 frames are independent (keyframes only)
Other reserved for future use

# 4.9.Quantization Tables

The quantization tables are stored by storing the number of equal entries -1 of the first half of the table using the method described in Section 3.6.1.2. The second half doesn’t need to be stored as it is identical to the first with flipped sign.

example:

Table: 0 0 1 1 1 1 2 2-2-2-2-1-1-1-1 0

Stored values: 1, 3, 1

function                                                      | type
--------------------------------------------------------------|-----
QuantizationTable( i ) {                                      |
scale = 1                                                 |
for( j = 0; j < MAX_CONTEXT_INPUTS; j++ ) {               |
QuantizationTablePerContext( i, j, scale )            |
scale *= 2 * len_count[ i ][ j ] - 1                  |
}                                                         |
context_count[ i ] = ( scale + 1 ) / 2                    |
}                                                             |


MAX_CONTEXT_INPUTS is 5.

function                                                      | type
--------------------------------------------------------------|-----
QuantizationTablePerContext(i, j, scale) {                    |
v = 0                                                     |
for( k = 0; k < 128; ) {                                  |
len - 1                                               | sr
for( a = 0; a < len; a++ ) {                          |
quant_tables[ i ][ j ][ k ] = scale* v            |
k++                                               |
}                                                     |
v++                                                   |
}                                                         |
for( k = 1; k < 128; k++ ) {                              |
quant_tables[ i ][ j ][ 256 - k ] = \                 |
-quant_tables[ i ][ j ][ k ]                          |
}                                                         |
quant_tables[ i ][ j ][ 128 ] = \                         |
-quant_tables[ i ][ j ][ 127 ]                            |
len_count[ i ][ j ] = v                                   |
}                                                             |


# 4.9.1.quant_tables

quant_tables indicates the quantification table values.

# 4.9.2.context_count

context_count indicates the count of contexts.

# 4.9.3.Restrictions

To ensure that fast multithreaded decoding is possible, starting version 3 and if frame_pixel_width * frame_pixel_height is more than 101376, slice_width * slice_height MUST be less or equal to num_h_slices * num_v_slices / 4. Note: 101376 is the frame size in pixels of a 352x288 frame also known as CIF ("Common Intermediate Format") frame size format.

For each frame, each position in the slice raster MUST be filled by one and only one slice of the frame (no missing slice position, no slice overlapping).

For each Frame with keyframe value of 0, each slice MUST have the same value of slice_x, slice_y, slice_width, slice_height as a slice in the previous frame, except if reset_contexts is 1.

# 5.Security Considerations

Like any other codec, (such as [RFC6716]), FFV1 should not be used with insecure ciphers or cipher-modes that are vulnerable to known plaintext attacks. Some of the header bits as well as the padding are easily predictable.

Implementations of the FFV1 codec need to take appropriate security considerations into account, as outlined in [RFC4732]. It is extremely important for the decoder to be robust against malicious payloads. Malicious payloads must not cause the decoder to overrun its allocated memory or to take an excessive amount of resources to decode. Although problems in encoders are typically rarer, the same applies to the encoder. Malicious video streams must not cause the encoder to misbehave because this would allow an attacker to attack transcoding gateways. A frequent security problem in image and video codecs is also to not check for integer overflows in pixel count computations, that is to allocate width * height without considering that the multiplication result may have overflowed the arithmetic types range.

The reference implementation [REFIMPL] contains no known buffer overflow or cases where a specially crafted packet or video segment could cause a significant increase in CPU load.

The reference implementation [REFIMPL] was validated in the following conditions:

• Sending the decoder valid packets generated by the reference encoder and verifying that the decoder's output matches the encoders input.
• Sending the decoder packets generated by the reference encoder and then subjected to random corruption.
• Sending the decoder random packets that are not FFV1.

In all of the conditions above, the decoder and encoder was run inside the [VALGRIND] memory debugger as well as clangs address sanitizer [Address-Sanitizer], which track reads and writes to invalid memory regions as well as the use of uninitialized memory. There were no errors reported on any of the tested conditions.

# 6.1.1.Multi-threading support and independence of slices

The bitstream is parsable in two ways: in sequential order as described in this document or with the pre-analysis of the footer of each slice. Each slice footer contains a slice_size field so the boundary of each slice is computable without having to parse the slice content. That allows multi-threading as well as independence of slice content (a bitstream error in a slice header or slice content has no impact on the decoding of the other slices).

After having checked keyframe field, a decoder SHOULD parse slice_size fields, from slice_size of the last slice at the end of the frame up to slice_size of the first slice at the beginning of the frame, before parsing slices, in order to have slices boundaries. A decoder MAY fallback on sequential order e.g. in case of corrupted frame (frame size unknown, slice_size of slices not coherent...) or if there is no possibility of seek into the stream.

Architecture overview of slices in a frame:

first slice content
first slice footer
---------------------------------------------------------------
second slice content
second slice footer
---------------------------------------------------------------
...
---------------------------------------------------------------
last slice content
last slice footer

# 8.ToDo

• mean,k estimation for the Golomb Rice codes

Copyright 2003-2013 Michael Niedermayer <michaelni@gmx.at> This text can be used under the GNU Free Documentation License or GNU General Public License. See <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/fdl.txt>.

# 10.1. Normative References

 [ISO.15444-1.2016] International Organization for Standardization, "Information technology -- JPEG 2000 image coding system: Core coding system", October 2016. [ISO.9899.1990] International Organization for Standardization, "Programming languages - C", ISO Standard 9899, 1990. [RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, DOI 10.17487/RFC2119, March 1997.

# 10.2. Informative References

 [Address-Sanitizer] The Clang Team, "ASAN AddressSanitizer website", undated. [AVI] Microsoft, "AVI RIFF File Reference", undated. [HuffYUV] Rudiak-Gould, B., "HuffYUV", December 2003. [ISO.14495-1.1999] International Organization for Standardization, "Information technology -- Lossless and near-lossless compression of continuous-tone still images: Baseline", December 1999. [ISO.14496-10.2014] International Organization for Standardization, "Information technology -- Coding of audio-visual objects -- Part 10: Advanced Video Coding", September 2014. [ISO.14496-12.2015] International Organization for Standardization, "Information technology -- Coding of audio-visual objects -- Part 12: ISO base media file format", December 2015. [NUT] Niedermayer, M., "NUT Open Container Format", December 2013. [range-coding] Nigel, G. and N. Martin, "Range encoding: an algorithm for removing redundancy from a digitised message.", Proc. Institution of Electronic and Radio Engineers International Conference on Video and Data Recording , July 1979. [REFIMPL] Niedermayer, M., "The reference FFV1 implementation / the FFV1 codec in FFmpeg", undated. [RFC4732] Handley, M., Rescorla, E. and IAB, "Internet Denial-of-Service Considerations", RFC 4732, DOI 10.17487/RFC4732, December 2006. [RFC6716] Valin, JM., Vos, K. and T. Terriberry, "Definition of the Opus Audio Codec", RFC 6716, DOI 10.17487/RFC6716, September 2012. [VALGRIND] Valgrind Developers, "Valgrind website", undated.