The purpose of idr_pic_id is vaguely specified in the H.264/AVC spec. The parameter idr_pic_id is signaled in the slice header of IDR picture only (i.e. if NAL type is 5).

On the one hand the standard of H.264/AVC clearly says:

When two consecutive access units in decoding order are both IDR access units, the value of idr_pic_id in

the slices of the first such IDR access unit shall differ from the idr_pic_id in the second such IDR access unit.”

On the other hand the spec. says the following regarding to the syntax element idr_pic_id:

When present in the primary coded picture and any redundant coded picture, the following syntax elements shall have

the same value: field_pic_flag, bottom_field_flag, and idr_pic_id.”

The above statements do not contradict each another since the redundant picture accompanying a primary picture is a part of the same access unit as the primary picture. As a result the main purpose of idr_pic_id is to distinguish redundant IDR picture from the primary IDR picture. Hence, if in a stream two successive IDR frames with same idr_pic_id are present and SPS parameter  redundant_pic_cnt_present_flag  is zero (common case) then the stream is non-compliant, usually one of the frame in the pair is discarded by a decoder.

It’s worth mentioning that in Restricted Baseline, Main and High profiles  redundant_pic_cnt_present_flag must be 0. In other words in these profiles two consecutive IDRs sharing same idr_pic_id are illegal and a player can react in such case as it wishes (e.g. to discard the second frame or to play both, by the way Elecard and VLC players play both frames).

In Baseline profile Redundant Pictures are allowed (along with ASO and FMO) to enhance error resilience. Formally the redundant picture is a redundant coded representation of a primary picture, it commonly covers a part of the primary picture. By the way each primary coded picture may have up to 127 redundant pictures (i.e. a single access unit may contain up to 128 pictures including itself). Usually only IDR frames are accompanied by redundant pictures since a corruption in IDR frame corrupts the whole GOP. The redundant picture is to be decoded only if transmission errors are sensed in the primary frame.
As already mentioned the redundant picture does not have to cover the entire region of the primary picture (i.e. the redundant picture does not have to be a replica of the primary one). Redundant picture can cover some important region of the primary frame (usually called ROI – Region of Interest).

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