Patent ID: 8831098

Claim:
An apparatus for decoding a video, the apparatus comprising: an obtainer which obtains, from a bitstream, encoded image data of a plurality of maximum coding units, and split information coding units in a maximum coding unit of the plurality of maximum coding units; and a decoder which decodes the plurality of maximum coding units according to a raster scanning order, decodes coding units of a current depth in the maximum coding unit according to a zigzag scanning order, and decodes blocks split from a coding unit of the current depth according to the zigzag scanning order, wherein the zigzag scanning order indicates an order of an upper-left block, an upper-right block, a lower-left block and a lower-right block according to the raster scan order among neighboring four square blocks, the maximum coding unit is hierarchically split into one or more coding units of depths including at least one of the current depth and a lower depth according to the split information, when the split information indicates a split for the current depth, the coding unit of the current depth is split into four coding units of a lower depth, independently from neighboring coding units, when the split information indicates a non-split for the lower depth, a coding unit of the lower depth is split into one or more prediction units.