Patent ID: 7233619

Claim:
A machine for compressing of a plurality of video frames which make up a video signal, comprising: (a) a video digitizer configured to digitize a frame from said video frames; (b) a video memory which is able to receive a plurality of pixels from said video digitizer; (c) an encoding circuit for counting repeated instances of a pixel value comprising a number of pixel bits sub-sampled from each pixel when scanning said plurality of pixels and outputting a series of encoded data comprising a combined run-length field and a data field, wherein the data field of each encoded data element comprises a number in the range from zero to the maximum value of said number of sub-sampled bits, and wherein the run-length field of each encoded data element comprises the repeat count of the value in said data field; (d) a memory which is able to store said encoded data; (c) an input/output device.