Patent ID: 7966190

Claim:
A method of processing an audio signal, the method being processed at an encoder, comprising: subdividing, by the encoder, a channel in a frame of the audio signal 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, at least two of the plurality of blocks in the channel for each level being capable of different lengths; generating, by the encoder, subdivision information indicating the subdivision of the channel into the plurality of blocks, a length of the subdivision information depending on a number of levels in the subdivision hierarchy; and determining, by the encoder, a final prediction order for each block based on a permitted maximum prediction order and a length of the block, the permitted maximum prediction order being a maximum number of data samples of the block, the determining step including, determining a global prediction order based on the permitted maximum prediction order; determining a local prediction order based on the length of the block; and selecting a minimum one of the global prediction order and the local prediction order as the final prediction order.