Patent ID: 8755435

Claim:
A method of coding intra chroma prediction mode of a chroma block, the method comprising: receiving a set of chroma mode symbols associated with the intra chroma prediction mode of the chroma block, wherein the set of chroma mode symbols includes one entry associated with Luma_mode to allow the chroma block to use an intra luma prediction mode of a corresponding luma block or an selected intra luma prediction mode of several corresponding luma blocks as the intra chroma prediction mode; determining variable length codes for the set of chroma mode symbols, wherein a shortest length code is assigned to the Luma_mode; receiving a current intra chroma prediction mode for a current chroma block; determining a chroma prediction code for the current intra chroma prediction mode of the current chroma block according to the variable length codes; and applying intra predictive coding to the current chroma block using the intra luma prediction mode of the corresponding luma block or the selected intra luma prediction mode of several corresponding luma blocks when the Luma_mode is selected for the current intra chroma prediction mode.