In general, techniques are described for coding picture order count values identifying long-term reference pictures. A video decoding device comprising a processor may perform the techniques. The processor may be configured to determine a number of bits used to represent least significant bits of the picture order count value that identifies a long-term reference picture to be used when decoding at least a portion of a current picture and parse the determined number of bits from a bitstream representative of the encoded video data. The parsed bits represent the least significant bits of the picture order count value. The processor retrieves the long-term reference picture from a decoded picture buffer based on the least significant bits, and decodes at least the portion of the current picture using the retrieved long-term reference picture.