Patent ID: 7835441

Claim:
An apparatus comprising: a reference memory storing a plurality of reference samples used in a motion estimation of a current block beyond a boundary of a picture; and a motion estimation circuit having a search memory and (i) copying a portion of said reference samples from a given window within said reference memory into a sub-window buffered in said search memory, said given window spatially matching said sub-window in size and shape, said given window residing both (a) inside said boundary and (b) inside a search window of said motion estimation, (ii) shifting a sub-set of said reference samples as buffered to align with a corner of said sub-window, said sub-window being (a) completely within said search window, (b) at least partially outside of said boundary and (c) smaller than said search window, (iii) filling an empty portion of said sub-window with a plurality of copies of said reference samples within said sub-set and (iv) generating a plurality of difference values by comparing said current block against said reference samples within said sub-window a plurality of times.