PARALLEL INTRA-PREDICTION ENCODING/DECODING PROCESS UTILIZING PIPCM AND/OR PIDC FOR SELECTED SECTIONS

Digital pictures may be encoded and decoded in a way that optimizes parallelization. Selected sections of a digital picture in a first list are encoded independently of encoding any of their neighbor sections. Sections in a second list located to the right of corresponding sections in the first list are encoded using at most the section to their immediate left. Sections in a third list located to the right of a corresponding section in the second list and immediately below a corresponding section in the first list are encoded using at most the sections to the immediate left, immediately above and immediately to its above-right. All other sections of the picture may be encoded in a normal manner.