Conditional entropy coding of DCT coefficients for video compression

We introduce conditional Huffman encoding of DCT run-length events to improve the coding efficiency of low- and medium-bit rate video compression algorithms. We condition the Huffman code for each run-length event on a classification of the current block. We classify blocks according to coding mode and signal type, which are known to the decoder, and according to energy, which the decoder must receive as side information. Our classification schemes improve coding efficiency with little or no increased running time and some increased memory use.