Explicit signaling of extended long term reference picture retention

1. A decoder configured to:

receive a bit stream including signaling information and a plurality of coded pictures including first coded picture, a second coded picture, and a subsequent coded picture;

decode the plurality of pictures including the first, second and subsequent pictures and store the decoded pictures in a decoded picture buffer, where the decode comprises:

decoding the first picture by forming a first list of active reference pictures from the pictures in the buffer, one of the active reference pictures being a long term reference picture which is an Instantaneous Decoding Refresh (IDR) picture, and decoding a block of said first picture using the long term reference IDR picture;

decoding the second picture by forming a second list of active reference pictures from the pictures in the buffer, said second list not including the long term reference IDR picture and, in response to at least one parameter in the signaling information, indicating that the long term reference IDR picture is inactive as a reference picture while continuing to store the long term reference IDR picture in the buffer; and

decoding the subsequent picture by forming a subsequent list of active reference pictures from the pictures in the buffer including, in response to at least one parameter in the signaling information, changing the indication of the long term reference IDR picture from inactive to active as a reference picture and including the long term reference IDR picture in the subsequent list, and decoding a block from the subsequent picture using the long term reference IDR picture.

2. The decoder of claim 1 further configured to mark the long term reference picture as unused for reference and remove the long term reference picture from the buffer.

3. The decoder of claim 1 wherein the parameter is a time related parameter.

4. The decoder of claim 1 wherein the bitstream is a single view bitstream.