QARV++: An Improved Hierarchical VAE for Learned Image Compression
Yichi Zhang, Yuning Huang, Fengqing Maggie Zhu · IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems for Video Technology · 2026
values, stabilizing variable-rate training. Extensive experiments demonstrate that QARV++ achieves superior rate-distortion (R-D) performance among HVAE-based LIC models, exhibiting -12.20% -16.34% -15.23% BD-Rate against VVC Intra mode on the Kodak, Tecnick, and CLIC2020 test datasets, respectively. Our approach also generalizes effectively to existing LICs, delivering substantial improvements.