Patent ID: 8255227

Claim:
A method of decoding an audio signal by a decoder, the method comprising: receiving, by the decoder, an audio data frame having at least first and second channels, the first and second channels having been independently subdivided into blocks if the first and second channels are not correlated with each other, and the first and second channels having been correspondingly-subdivided into blocks if the first and second channels are correlated with each other and difference coding is used; obtaining, by the decoder, subdivision information from the audio data frame, the subdivision information including first information and second information, the first information indicating whether the first and second channels are independently subdivided or correspondingly subdivided, the second information indicating a number of levels in a subdivision hierarchy and how the subdividing is performed; and decoding, by the decoder, the first and second channels based on the obtained subdivision information, wherein both the independently subdividing and the correspondingly subdividing subdivide the first and second channels according to the subdivision hierarchy, the subdivision hierarchy has more than one level, and at least two of the blocks in each of the first and second channels for each level being capable of different lengths, wherein the second information indicates whether the subdivision hierarchy includes one of up to three levels, four levels, and five levels, if the second information is 01, the second information indicates the subdivision hierarchy includes up to three levels, if the second information is 10, the second information indicates the subdivision hierarchy includes four levels, and if the second information is 11, the second information indicates the subdivision hierarchy includes five levels.