Patent ID: 9729882
Date: 2017-08-08
CPC Classifications: H04N

Claim:
1. A method for decoding a video stream of frames, each frame having a plurality of macroblocks, comprising: receiving a frame of a video stream to be decoded; determining, based on a header of the frame, a variable length code defining sizes of one or more superblocks in the frame using a processor, each superblock formed of at least one macroblock encoded using direct prediction, wherein the variable length code includes one bit to describe a most frequent size for the one or more superblocks in the frame and two bits to describe each of a second and a third most frequent size for the one or more superblocks in the frame; selecting a superblock of the frame; determining a size of the superblock based on a header of the superblock and the variable length code, the size of the superblock indicating a number of macroblocks belonging to the superblock; decoding those macroblocks belonging to the superblock using direct prediction; and decoding any macroblocks of the frame that do not belong to the one or more superblocks.