Patent attributes
A video codec of a preferred embodiment is suitable for implementation on a variety of platforms, including platforms where devices require both encoding and decoding engines. Various features of preferred embodiment codecs reduce complexity for operations such as motion determination. Channel resources are allocated in preferred embodiments unequally, with an allocation being determined based upon channel conditions and the error level in a frame being encoded. A decoder of a preferred embodiment, provided with an error frame and motion vector information may conduct decoding with motion compensation. In an example encoder of the invention, a motion estimator identifies motion vectors using a phase plane correlation technique based on phase quantization, where the phase difference between the Fourier transformed version of blocks in a reference frame and a current frame is estimated by dividing the complex plane into sectors and assigning the Fourier domain difference to the sectors.