Patent ID: 8428374

Claim:
In a computing device that implements a video decoder, a method of decoding plural video pictures of a video sequence, the plural video pictures including plural predicted macroblocks, wherein each block of the plural predicted macroblocks is predicted from no more than one reference video picture, the method comprising: receiving, at the computing device that implements the video decoder, encoded data in a bit stream for the plural video pictures; and with the computing device that implements the video decoder, decoding the plural video pictures, including: selecting a coding mode from among plural available coding modes; for one or more skipped macroblocks among the plural predicted macroblocks, decoding skipped macroblock information signaled at a layer in bitstream syntax, the skipped macroblock information having been encoded according to the coding mode selected from among the plural available coding modes, wherein the skipped macroblock information indicates skipped/not skipped status; and processing the one or more skipped macroblocks, wherein each of the one or more skipped macroblocks uses predicted motion for the skipped macroblock based upon motion of one or more other predicted macroblocks around the skipped macroblock, and wherein each of the one or more skipped macroblocks lacks residual information.