Patent ID: 8223845

Claim:
A method for encoding a video picture, the method comprising: determining first and second size categories by setting a first number of slices for the first size category and setting a second number of slices for the second size category, wherein the first number of slices is equal to a number of parallel task threads available to encode slices of the video picture and the second number of slices is based on a total number of slices for the video picture and the first number of slices; dividing the video picture into a plurality of different sized slices that are categorized into the first and second size categories, wherein at least one slice belongs to each of the first and second categories, wherein each of the slice sizes is specified as a number of macroblocks in the slice; and at an encoder, encoding the video picture by starting encoding of all slices in the first size category before starting encoding of any slice in the second size category.