Patent ID: 7280700

Claim:
A method for encoding video, the method comprising: making a decision between temporal motion vector prediction and spatial motion vector prediction for a slice of a B-picture in a video sequence; and signaling slice-level syntax information indicating the decision for the slice, wherein the signaling facilitates selectively applying spatial prediction of motion associated with the slice of the B-picture in the video sequence, and wherein selectively applying spatial prediction comprises: at a decoder, using temporal prediction of motion associated with the slice if the slice-level syntax information indicates temporal motion vector prediction for the slice; and at the decoder, using spatial prediction of motion associated with the slice if the slice-level syntax information indicates spatial motion vector prediction for the slice, wherein spatially predicted motion for a current portion of the slice is based on motion vector information for plural neighboring portions, and wherein the spatial prediction includes setting the spatially predicted motion for the current portion to be zero when the motion vector information for each of the plural neighboring portions includes plural motion vector components set to zero.