Patent ID: 7843995

Claim:
A method of selecting an inter mode for encoding a video macroblock, the method comprising: analyzing spatial variance of a macroblock using a macroblock spatial mode predictor; identifying a first subset of inter modes based on the macroblock spatial variance; analyzing temporal variance around the macroblock using a macroblock temporal mode predictor; identifying a second subset of inter modes based on the temporal variance around the macroblock; defining a third subset of inter modes according to a relationship between the first and second subsets; and selecting an inter mode, from the third subset of inter modes, in which the macroblock will be encoded; wherein the analyzing temporal variance comprises: identifying a plurality of modes in which at least two blocks, collocated to the macroblock, are to be encoded; averaging the plurality of modes; comparing the average of the plurality of modes to a threshold; and wherein the second subset is identified based on the comparison of the average of the plurality of modes to the threshold.