Patent ID: 6987807

Claim:
A method for compressing digital video data representing luminance values, first chrominance values and second chrominance values for a sequence of pixels arranged in a group having a first pixel followed by one or more other pixels, wherein the method comprises: storing in memory a compressed representation of the luminance values; storing in memory a representation of the first chrominance value of the first pixel in the group of pixels; storing in memory a representation of the second chrominance value of the first pixel in the group of pixels; determining a first difference between the first chrominance value of a second pixel in the group and the first chrominance value of another pixel in the group that immediately precedes the second pixel; storing in memory a representation of the first difference when the first difference does not exceed a first threshold, and storing in memory a first code when the first difference exceeds the first threshold, wherein the first code is represented by a value that is distinct from values stored to represent the first difference; determining a second difference between the second chrominance value of the second pixel and the second chrominance value of the other pixel that immediately precedes the second pixel; and storing in memory a representation of the second difference when the second difference does not exceed a second threshold, and storing in memory a second code when the second difference exceeds the second threshold, wherein the second code is represented by a value that is distinct from values stored to represent the second difference.