Patent ID: 7769084

Claim:
A method of quantizing a digital video frame comprising a plurality of macroblocks, wherein quantization of a macroblock comprises compressing values in the macroblock by using a single quantization value, said method comprising: dividing the video frame into more than one macroblock group, each of said macroblock groups comprising one or more macroblocks, at least one of said macroblock groups comprising more than one macroblock; and for each macroblock group, assigning a same single quantizer value to all macroblocks in the macroblock group, wherein said single quantizer value for the macroblock group is dependent upon how macroblocks in said macroblock group are encoded; and for each macroblock group, quantizing the macroblocks in the macroblock group by using the same single assigned quantizer value as the single quantization value for each macroblock in the macroblock group.