Patent ID: 8107531

Claim:
A method of decoding compressed video containing skip frames using a video decoder, the method comprising: receiving, at the video decoder, encoded data in a bitstream, wherein the encoded data includes a frame-level bitstream syntax element for a current frame of a video sequence; with the video decoder, decoding the frame-level bitstream syntax element in accordance with a variable length code table comprising: plural codes that indicate a plurality of frame coding types, respectively; and a code that indicates a skip frame, wherein, in the case the frame-level bitstream syntax element signals the current frame to be a skip frame, the bitstream lacks further data for decoding the current frame after the frame-level bitstream syntax element for the current frame; and with the video decoder, in the case the frame-level bitstream syntax element signals the current frame to be a skip frame, reconstructing the current frame as a P-frame that is identical to its reference frame, including repeating active picture content from the reference frame to reconstruct the current frame, such that the current frame is identical in content to the reference frame.