Scalable multi-thread video decoding

A computer system comprising plural processing units, memory and storage storing computer-executable instructions for performing a method comprising:

• receiving encoded video at a video decoder on the computer system, each of the plural processing units comprising plural hardware threads, wherein the encoded video comprises plural video pictures;
• and
• decoding the encoded video, wherein the decoding includes:
• identifying a video decoding stage for the received encoded video;
• identifying plural decoding tasks for at least one of the plural video pictures, including segmenting the video decoding stage into plural segmented tasks among the plural decoding tasks, the plural decoding tasks comprising a first decoding task among the plural segmented tasks and a second decoding task that depends on completion of at least the first decoding task;
• checking for task dependencies for at least the first decoding task, including performing a task dependency assessment for the plural segmented tasks;
• identifying the first decoding task as currently runnable based at least in part on the task dependency assessment for the plural segmented tasks;
• prioritizing the plural decoding tasks based at least in part on the task dependency assessment, including adding the first decoding task to a priority queue;
• and
• selecting the first decoding task from the priority queue, the first decoding task to be performed by one of the plural hardware threads.

A computer-readable memory storing computer-executable instructions for causing one or more processing units programmed thereby to perform a method, the method comprising:

• receiving encoded video information at a video decoder on a computer system comprising plural hardware threads, wherein the computer system comprises plural processing units, each of the plural processing units comprising two or more of the plural hardware threads;
• identifying a video decoding stage for the received encoded video information;
• identifying plural decoding tasks to be performed in decoding of the encoded video information, including segmenting the video decoding stage into plural segmented tasks among the plural decoding tasks;
• identifying at least one task dependency for at least one of the plural decoding tasks, including performing a task dependency assessment for the plural segmented tasks;
• identifying at least one runnable segmented task of the plural segmented tasks based at least in part on the task dependency assessment;
• prioritizing the plural decoding tasks based at least in part on the at least one task dependency, including adding the at least one runnable segmented task to a priority data structure;
• and
• selecting at least one of the prioritized decoding tasks for one of the plural hardware threads.