An apparatus for sample adaptive offset "SAO" signaling during entropy encoding of a video, the apparatus comprising: (a) a video encoder having a processor; and (b) programming executable on said processor and configured for: (i) receiving a decoded video signal from a deblocking filter after inverse quantization and inverse transform operations in the video encoder; (ii) indicating within a two-bit syntax element SAO type only, wherein the SAO type comprises one of SAO on / off, band offset "BO" and edge offset "EO"; (iii) binarizing SAO type using truncated unary; (iv) coding offset absolute values for BO, or alternatively coding offset absolute values for EO, depending on whether SAO type is BO or EO; (v) coding offset signs for BO followed by coding BO band, indicating a displacement of the band offset, or alternatively coding EO class as one of four classes indicating direction, depending on whether SAO type is BO or EO; (vi) signaling said SAO type to a decoder; (vii) signaling offset absolute values for BO, or alternatively signaling offset absolute values for EO, to the decoder depending on whether SAO type is BO or EO; and (viii) signaling offset signs for BO followed by signaling BO band, or alternatively signaling EO class, to the decoder depending on whether SAO type is BO or EO; wherein said SAO type, BO offset absolute value, EO offset absolute value, BO offset signs, BO band position, and EO class are signaled using a syntax in which a first bin of SAO type is context coded while remaining bins signaled for SAO type, BO offset absolute value, EO offset absolute value, BO offset signs, BO band position, and EO class are by-pass coded, the programming executable on said processor being configured for ordering the syntax to group the context-coded bins of the syntax before the by-pass coded bins of the syntax. (a) a video encoder having a processor; and (b) programming executable on said processor and configured for: (i) receiving a decoded video signal from a deblocking filter after inverse quantization and inverse transform operations in the video encoder; (ii) indicating within a two-bit syntax element SAO type only, wherein the SAO type comprises one of SAO on / off, band offset "BO" and edge offset "EO"; (iii) binarizing SAO type using truncated unary; (iv) coding offset absolute values for BO, or alternatively coding offset absolute values for EO, depending on whether SAO type is BO or EO; (v) coding offset signs for BO followed by coding BO band, indicating a displacement of the band offset, or alternatively coding EO class as one of four classes indicating direction, depending on whether SAO type is BO or EO; (vi) signaling said SAO type to a decoder; (vii) signaling offset absolute values for BO, or alternatively signaling offset absolute values for EO, to the decoder depending on whether SAO type is BO or EO; and (viii) signaling offset signs for BO followed by signaling BO band, or alternatively signaling EO class, to the decoder depending on whether SAO type is BO or EO; (i) receiving a decoded video signal from a deblocking filter after inverse quantization and inverse transform operations in the video encoder; (ii) indicating within a two-bit syntax element SAO type only, wherein the SAO type comprises one of SAO on / off, band offset "BO" and edge offset "EO"; (iii) binarizing SAO type using truncated unary; (iv) coding offset absolute values for BO, or alternatively coding offset absolute values for EO, depending on whether SAO type is BO or EO; (v) coding offset signs for BO followed by coding BO band, indicating a displacement of the band offset, or alternatively coding EO class as one of four classes indicating direction, depending on whether SAO type is BO or EO; (vi) signaling said SAO type to a decoder; (vii) signaling offset absolute values for BO, or alternatively signaling offset absolute values for EO, to the decoder depending on whether SAO type is BO or EO; and (viii) signaling offset signs for BO followed by signaling BO band, or alternatively signaling EO class, to the decoder depending on whether SAO type is BO or EO;