The present invention relates to a video encoding device (10, 10', 10") and method for encoding video data and to a corresponding video decoding device (60, 60') and method. To preserve PPG relevant information after encoding without requiring a large amount of additional data for the video encoder output stream, the proposed video encoding device comprises a selection unit (20, 20') for selecting in input video data (100) skin areas as one or more regions of interest (101), that can be used to provide a strong PPG signal, based on one or more predetermined selection criteria including the spatial size, temporal stability, illumination stability and/or color stability or based on the quality and/or content of PPG signals extracted from skin areas potentially usable as region of interest,, a first encoding unit (30,30') for encoding said one or more regions of interest (101) of said input video data (100) according to a predetermined encoding scheme with a first setting of the encoding to preserve PPG-relevant information in the encoded one or more regions of interest, wherein said first encoding unit (30) is adapted for encoding only the chrominance components (101a) of said one or more regions of interest (101) or for encoding said one or more regions of interest (101) by intra-block coding,, a second encoding unit (40, 40') for encoding remaining parts (103) of said input video data (100) according to said predetermined encoding scheme with a second setting of the encoding, and an encoder combination unit (50) for combining the encoded one or more regions of interest (102) and the encoded remaining parts (104) of said input video data into an encoder output video stream (105).
