Adaptive weighting of reference pictures in video decoding

A video decoder for decoding video data for a picture having a plurality of image blocks, the video data including data for an image block of the plurality of image blocks and including at least one reference picture index, the decoder comprising:

• means for receiving the video data, the received video data including a single reference picture index for the image block and the data for the image block, the received single reference picture index corresponding to a particular reference picture;
• and
• means for predicting the image block using the particular reference picture corresponding to the single reference picture index and using a weighting factor, determined from a set of weighting factors, and corresponding to the single received reference picture index,
• wherein the single received reference picture index determines both the particular reference picture and the weighting factor.

A non-transitory computer readable media readable by machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform program steps for decoding video data for a picture having a plurality of image blocks, the video data including data for an image block of the plurality of image blocks and including at least one reference picture index, the program steps including:

• receiving the video data, the received video data including a single reference picture index for the image block and the data for the image block, the received single reference picture index corresponding to a particular reference picture;
• and
• predicting the image block using the particular reference picture corresponding to the single reference picture index and using a weighting factor, determined from a set of weighting factors, and corresponding to the single received reference picture index,
• wherein the single received reference picture index determines both the particular reference picture and the weighting factor.