Patent ID: 7366240

Claim:
A method of processing video frame data, comprising the steps of: receiving a video frame; partially decoding the video frame; fully decoding the video frame to produce macroblocks; determining video data parameters from the partially decoded video frame or both the partially and fully decoded video frame; and encoding the macroblocks based on the determined video data parameters to provide a compressed video frame for subsequent display, wherein the determining step includes one or more of: (i) determining macroblock-level and picture-level video data parameters; (ii) determining macroblock complexity in the video frame; (iii) determining picture statistics of the video frame; and wherein said picture statistics include DCT type, DC compression factor, picture complexity, a picture bit count of AC coefficients, and a picture bit count of DC coefficients, wherein said picture bit count of DC coefficients is determined as the summed accumulation of bit counts of DC coefficients from intra-coded macroblocks multiplied by the DC compression factor and accumulation of estimated bit count of DC coefficients from the inter-coded macroblocks.