Patent ID: 8526497

Claim:
A method of decoding a video, the method comprising: receiving a bitstream of an encoded video; extracting, from the bitstream, information about a maximum size of a coding unit, which is a data unit in which an image is decoded, and split information indicating whether each coding unit of the image is split into coding units of lower depth up to coding units of a corresponding coded depth; determining, based on the extracted split information, that the each coding unit is split into coding units of lower depth up to a corresponding coded depth and not split anymore and determining coding units of a tree structure comprising coding units of coded depths among coding units split from a maximum coding unit; and decoding the image based on the determined coding units of the tree structure, wherein the image is hierarchically split from a plurality of maximum coding units according to the extracted information about the maximum size of the coding unit into the coding units of coded depths according to depths, based on the split information, wherein a coding unit of a current depth is one of rectangular data units split from a coding unit of an upper depth, and wherein the coding unit of the current depth is split into the coding units of the lower depth, independently from neighboring coding units.