Patent ID: 7116830

Claim:
In a computer system, a computer-implemented method of processing a current block of pixels of a video frame of a video sequence, the method comprising: predicting a spatial extrapolation mode for the current block based upon plural contextual spatial extrapolation modes, the plural contextual spatial extrapolation modes including a first contextual spatial extrapolation mode for a first causal block above the current block in the video frame, the plural contextual spatial extrapolation modes further including a second contextual spatial extrapolation mode for a second causal block left of the current block in the video frame; and computing an actual spatial extrapolation mode for the current block, wherein the computing is based at least in part upon the predicted spatial extrapolation mode for the current block, and wherein the computing includes evaluating one or more spatial extrapolation modes in a rank ordering starting with the predicted spatial extrapolation mode.