Patent ID: 8046092

Claim:
A method of processing an audio signal by a decoder operated by a central processing unit, the method comprising: receiving, by the decoder, the audio signal having configuration information and at least one channel subdivided into a plurality of blocks according to a subdivision hierarchy, the subdivision hierarchy having more than one level, each level being associated with a different block length, and at least two of the plurality of blocks in the at least one channel for each level being capable of different lengths; reading, by the decoder, a first indicator from the configuration information, the first indicator indicating whether or not channel mapping information is included in the configuration information, reading, by the decoder, the channel mapping information from the configuration information if the first indicator indicates that the channel mapping information is included in the configuration information, the channel mapping information indicating to which speaker in a reproduction device to map each channel in the audio signal; reading, by the decoder, a second indicator from the configuration information, the second indicator indicating whether or not channel rearrangement information is included in the configuration information, reading, by the decoder, the channel rearrangement information from the configuration information if the second indicator indicates that the channel rearrangement information is included in the configuration information, the channel rearrangement information indicating a rearrangement of multi-channels; reading, by the decoder, subdivision information indicating the subdivision of the at least one channel into the plurality of blocks if the at least one channel has been subdivided; obtaining, by the decoder, an optimum prediction order for each block in the at least one channel; predicting, by the decoder, current data samples in the at least one channel based on the optimum prediction order; obtaining, by the decoder, a residual of the current data samples from the audio signal; and decoding, by the decoder, the multi-channels based on the channel mapping information, the subdivision information, the channel rearrangement information and the residual of the current data samples, wherein a length of the plurality of blocks depends on a number of levels in the subdivision hierarchy, wherein the optimum prediction order indicates a minimum of a global prediction order and a local prediction order, the global prediction order having been determined based on a maximum permitted prediction order, the local prediction order having been determined based on a length of the block.