Patent ID: 7460596

Claim:
A method for reducing a blocking artifact in a video stream, the method comprising: determining a filtering range according to block coding types of a plurality of adjacent blocks in the video stream, wherein the filtering range specifies a number of pixels to filter around a block boundary between the adjacent blocks; and filtering a plurality of pixels around the block boundary according to the filtering range to reduce the blocking artifact in the video stream; wherein determining the filtering range according to the block coding types of the adjacent blocks in the video stream further comprises: if at least one of the adjacent blocks is an intra-coded block, determining the filtering range to be up to four pixels around the block boundary; and if none of the adjacent blocks are intra-coded blocks, determining the filtering range to be up to eight pixels around the block boundary; if at least one of the adjacent blocks is an intra-coded block: if an activity value is greater than a first threshold, determining a region mode to be an active region; if the activity value is less than the first threshold but greater than a second threshold, determining the region mode to be a smooth region; and if the activity value is less than the second threshold, determining the region mode to be a dormant region; and if none of the adjacent blocks are intra-coded blocks: if the activity value is greater than a third threshold, determining the region mode to be an active region; if the activity value is less than the third threshold but greater than the second threshold, determining the region mode to be a smooth region; and if the activity value is less than the second threshold, determining the region mode to be a dormant region.