Context-adaptive VLC video transform coefficients encoding/decoding methods and apparatuses

An apparatus comprising:

• storage medium;
• and
• a plurality of codeword tables stored in said storage medium, with each of said codeword tables having a plurality of codewords to be adaptively accessed to perform at least one of
• encoding a level measure of a transform coefficient of a sample block of a macroblock of a picture, with said encoding being independent of encoding of a number of coefficients of the transform coefficients of the sample block;
• and
• decoding an encoding of a level measure of a transform coefficient of a sample block of a macroblock of a picture, with said encoding being independent of a number of coefficients of the transform coefficients of the sample block.

An apparatus comprising:

• storage medium;
• and
• a plurality of codeword tables stored in said storage medium, with each of said codeword tables having a plurality of codewords to be selectively accessed, based at least in part on a sample block type, to perform at least one of
• encoding a number of zero coefficients interposed between non-zero coefficients of a series of transform coefficients of sample blocks of a macroblock of a picture, and one or more run lengths of the zero coefficients before the respective non-zero coefficients;
• and
• decoding an encoding of a number of zero coefficients interposed between non-zero coefficients of a series of transform coefficients of sample blocks of a macroblock of a picture, and one or more run lengths of the zero coefficients before the respective non-zero coefficients.

An article of manufacture comprising:

• a recordable medium;
• and
• a plurality of codeword tables recorded on the recordable medium to be retrieved to program an apparatus, with each of said plurality of codeword tables having a plurality of codewords to enable the apparatus to selectively access the codewords to perform at least one of
• encoding in a combined manner, a number of coefficients and a number of trailing one coefficients in a series of transform coefficients of sample blocks of a macroblock of a picture;
• and
• decoding a combined encoding of a number of coefficients and a number of trailing one coefficients in a series of transform coefficients of sample blocks of a macroblock of a picture.

An article of manufacture comprising:

• a recordable medium;
• and
• a plurality of codeword tables recorded on said recordable medium to be retrieved to program an apparatus, with each of said codeword tables having a plurality of codewords to be selectively accessed by the apparatus to perform at least one of
• encoding a level measure of a transform coefficient of a sample block of a macroblock of a picture, with said encoding being independent of encoding of a number of coefficients of the transform coefficients of the sample block;
• and
• decoding an encoding of a level measure of a transform coefficient of a sample block of a macroblock of a picture, with said encoding being independent of encoding of a number of coefficients of the transform coefficients of the sample block.

An article comprising:

• a recordable medium;
• and
• a plurality of codeword tables recorded on said recordable medium to be retrieved to program an apparatus, with each of said codeword tables having a plurality of codewords to be selectively accessed by the apparatus to perform at least one of
• encoding a number of zero coefficients interposed between non-zero coefficients of a series of transform coefficients of sample blocks of a macroblock of a picture, and one or more run lengths of the zero coefficients before the respective non-zero coefficients;
• and
• decoding an encoding of a number of zero coefficients interposed between non-zero coefficients of a series of transform coefficients of sample blocks of a macroblock of a picture, and one or more run lengths of the zero coefficients before the respective non-zero coefficients.

A video encoding method comprising:

• encoding in a combined manner, a number of coefficients and a number of trailing one coefficients in a series of transform coefficients of sample blocks of a macroblock of a picture;
• encoding signs of the trailing one coefficients;
• encoding a level measure of each of the non-zero transform coefficients before the trailing one coefficients;
• and
• encoding a number of zero coefficients interposed between the non-zero coefficients before the trailing one coefficients, and one or more run lengths of the zero coefficients before the respective non-zero coefficients before the trailing one coefficients.

A video decoding method comprising:

• decoding a combined encoding of a number of coefficients and a number of trailing one coefficients in a series of transform coefficients of sample blocks of a macroblock of a picture;
• decoding encodings of signs of trailing one coefficients;
• decoding encodings of level measures of the non-zero transform coefficients before the trailing one coefficients;
• and
• decoding an encoding of a number of zero coefficients interposed between the non-zero, and one or more run lengths of the zero coefficients before the respective non-zero coefficients.

In a system, a video encoding and decoding method comprising:

• a first device encoding a series of transform coefficients of sample blocks of a macroblock of a picture by
• encoding in a combined manner, a number of coefficients and a number of trailing one coefficients in the series of transform coefficients,
• encoding signs of the trailing one coefficients,
• encoding a level measure of each of the non-zero transform coefficients before the trailing one coefficients, and
• encoding a number of zero coefficients interposed between the non-zero coefficients, and one or more run lengths of the zero coefficients before the respective non-zero coefficients;
• and
• a second device recovering the sample block by
• decoding the combined encoding of the number of coefficients and the number of trailing one coefficients in the series of transform coefficients,
• decoding the encodings of the signs of the trailing one coefficients,
• decoding the encodings of the level measures of the non-zero transform coefficients before the trailing one coefficients, and
• decoding encodings of the number of zero coefficients interposed between the non-zero coefficients, and the encodings of the one or more run lengths of the zero coefficients before the respective non-zero coefficients.