Patent ID: 8798159

Claim:
A method of decoding video data, the method comprising: receiving and parsing a bitstream comprising encoded video data; obtaining, from the bitstream, the encoded video data, split information of a coding unit, encoding information regarding the coding unit, and information regarding an operating mode of a coding tool determined according to a size of the coding unit in a maximum coding unit; determining the coding unit which is hierarchically split from the maximum coding unit based on the split information; and decoding the coding unit in the maximum coding unit according to an operating mode of a coding tool, by using the encoding information regarding the coding unit, wherein the operating mode of the coding tool is determined corresponding to the size of the coding unit based on the information regarding an operating mode of a coding tool determined according to a size of the coding unit, wherein the image is split into a plurality of maximum coding units, the maximum coding unit is hierarchically split into one or more coding units of depths including at least one of a 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 a current depth is split into four coding units of a lower depth, independently from neighboring coding units, and when the split information indicates a non-split for the lower depth, the coding unit of the lower depth is split into one or more prediction units.