The embodiments reduce output delay for pictures by determining after a current picture has been decoded and stored in a decoded picture buffer, DPB, a number of pictures in the DPB that are marked as needed for output. This number is compared, after a current picture has been decoded and stored in the DPB, against a value derived form at least one syntax element present or to be present in a bitstream representing pictures of a video sequence. If this number is greater than the value a picture, which is the first picture in output order, of the pictures in the DPB that are marked as needed for output is preferably output and marked as not needed for output.