Patent ID: 7272567

Claim:
A method of decoding an audio bitstream, comprising: receiving a bitstream as a sequence of analysis windows comprising header information including a least significant bit (LSB) bit width and an LSB bit width reduction and audio data including losslessly encoded most significant bit (MSB) portions and either losslessly encoded or scaled LSB portions so that a buffered payload of each analysis window is within an allowed payload; extracting the LSB bit width and the LSB bit width reduction for each analysis window; extracting the losslessly encoded MSB portions and decoding them into PCM audio data; extracting either the losslessly encoded or scaled LSB portions and decoding them into PCM audio data; assembling the MSB and LSB portions for each PCM audio sample; using the LSB bit width and LSB bit width reduction to translate the assembled PCM audio data to an original bit width word; and outputting the PCM audio data for each analysis window.