A method of decoding an intra prediction mode for a current block, wherein the intra prediction mode belongs to a mode set comprising DC mode, Planar mode and a plurality of angular modes, the method comprising: generating a predictor of the intra mode for the current block based on the intra modes of the left and above neighboring blocks, wherein when the two neighboring modes are the same there is one most probable mode and when the two neighboring modes are different there are two most probable modes; receiving a most probable mode flag in a video bitstream, wherein the most probable mode flag is set if the intra prediction mode for the current block is equal to any of the one or two most probable modes; decoding the intra prediction mode for the current block according to the most probable mode flag: if the most probable mode flag is not set, decoding a remaining mode index based on a remaining mode indicating syntax element in the video bitstream using variable length coding or arithmetic coding, wherein the remaining mode index is used for indicating which one of a plurality of remaining modes corresponds to the intra prediction mode for the current block; if the most probable mode flag is set and there are two most probable modes available, decoding a most probable mode indicating syntax element in the video bitstream, wherein the most probable mode indicating syntax element is used for indicating which one of the two most probable modes is the intra prediction mode for the current block; and decoding the current block based on the intra prediction mode for the current block; characterized in that the DC mode and the Planar mode are represented with different mode indices, wherein the different indices of DC mode and Planar mode are encoded into different codewords in variable length coding or different binarized representations in arithmetic coding. generating a predictor of the intra mode for the current block based on the intra modes of the left and above neighboring blocks, wherein when the two neighboring modes are the same there is one most probable mode and when the two neighboring modes are different there are two most probable modes; receiving a most probable mode flag in a video bitstream, wherein the most probable mode flag is set if the intra prediction mode for the current block is equal to any of the one or two most probable modes; decoding the intra prediction mode for the current block according to the most probable mode flag: if the most probable mode flag is not set, decoding a remaining mode index based on a remaining mode indicating syntax element in the video bitstream using variable length coding or arithmetic coding, wherein the remaining mode index is used for indicating which one of a plurality of remaining modes corresponds to the intra prediction mode for the current block; if the most probable mode flag is set and there are two most probable modes available, decoding a most probable mode indicating syntax element in the video bitstream, wherein the most probable mode indicating syntax element is used for indicating which one of the two most probable modes is the intra prediction mode for the current block; and decoding the current block based on the intra prediction mode for the current block; if the most probable mode flag is not set, decoding a remaining mode index based on a remaining mode indicating syntax element in the video bitstream using variable length coding or arithmetic coding, wherein the remaining mode index is used for indicating which one of a plurality of remaining modes corresponds to the intra prediction mode for the current block; if the most probable mode flag is set and there are two most probable modes available, decoding a most probable mode indicating syntax element in the video bitstream, wherein the most probable mode indicating syntax element is used for indicating which one of the two most probable modes is the intra prediction mode for the current block; and decoding the current block based on the intra prediction mode for the current block; characterized in that the DC mode and the Planar mode are represented with different mode indices, wherein the different indices of DC mode and Planar mode are encoded into different codewords in variable length coding or different binarized representations in arithmetic coding.