Patent ID: 8472521

Claim:
An apparatus for decoding a video, the apparatus comprising: a receiver which receives and parses a bitstream of an encoded video; a processor which extracts, from the bitstream, information about a maximum size of a coding unit, which is a data unit in which an image is decoded, and encoding information about a coded depth and an encoding mode for coding units of the image; and a decoder which determines coding units of a tree structure and decodes the image based on the determined coding units of the tree structure, using the extracted information about the maximum size of the coding unit and the extracted encoding information about the coded depth and the encoding mode, wherein the image is hierarchically split from a plurality of maximum coding units according to the extracted information about the maximum size of the coding unit into coding units of coded depths according to depths, wherein a coding unit of a current depth is one of rectangular data units split from a coding unit of an upper depth, wherein the coding unit of the current depth is split into coding units of a lower depth up to coding units of a corresponding coded depth, independently from neighboring coding units, and wherein the determined coding units of the tree structure comprise the coding units of the coded depths among coding units split from a maximum coding unit.