Patent ID: 6975680

Claim:
A method for coding video frames in a video compression system comprising: receiving an input image corresponding to a video frame, wherein the input image comprises a sample, and wherein the sample is represented by a number of bits; providing a plurality of coding modes, including a first coding mode and a second coding mode; providing a plurality of bias values, including a first bias value and a second bias value, wherein the first bias value corresponds to the first coding mode and the second bias value corresponds to the second coding mode, and wherein the second bias value is different from the first bias value; scaling each of the plurality of bias values as a function of the number of bits representing the sample of the input image; providing a first coding mode sum corresponding to the first coding mode, comprising adding the first bias value and a match measure; providing a second coding mode sum corresponding to the second coding mode, comprising adding the second bias value and the match measure; and selecting a preferred coding mode from the plurality of coding modes, comprising selecting a minimum of a plurality of coding mode sums, wherein the plurality of coding mode sums includes the first coding mode sum and the second coding mode sum.