General block partitioning method

A decoder capable of decoding a bitstream indicating how a coding tree unit was partitioned into coding units according to a partitioning structure that allows root nodes to be split with quadtree partitioning, symmetric binary partitioning, or asymmetric binary partitioning, the decoder comprising:

• a processor that parses said bitstream to determine a syntax associated with each coding unit, wherein said syntax conforms to the following:
• asymmetric partitioning of the coding tree unit is allowed;
• if a node uses quadtree partitioning, a child of the node is partitionable via quadtree partitioning, binary partitioning, or asymmetric partitioning;
• if a node uses asymmetric partitioning, no further partitions are allowed;
• if a node uses binary partitioning, a child of the node is only partitionable via binary partitioning;
• where
• the processor decodes the identified coding units in accordance with said syntax.