Patent ID: 6980596

Claim:
A method of encoding or decoding digital video content, said digital video content comprising a stream of pictures which can each be intra, predicted, or bi-predicted pictures, each of said pictures comprising macroblocks, said method comprising the steps of: selecting to encode or decode a group of neighboring macroblocks in a frame mode or a field mode; arranging said group of neighboring macroblocks for processing into frame macroblocks or field macroblocks according to the selected one of said frame mode or said field mode; and encoding or decoding said frame macroblocks or said field macroblocks, wherein, the step of arranging said group of neighboring macroblocks for processing into frame macroblocks or field macroblocks includes the step of: in frame mode, jointly processing two fields in said group of neighboring macroblocks, said group of neighboring macroblocks being divided into frame macroblocks, and each of said frame macroblocks including both top and bottom field pixels; in said field mode, separately processing two fields of said group of neighboring macroblocks, said group of neighboring macroblocks being split into field macroblocks, and each of said field macroblocks including either top or bottom field pixels, and wherein said frame macroblocks and said field macroblocks are the same size.