US Patent 11683509 Prediction unit skip detection in encoder

Techniques for detecting skipped prediction units in an encoder are disclosed. Control information associated with a prediction unit of a video frame is received at a node of a video encoding pipeline used to compress the video frame. A skip decision for the prediction unit is made by analyzing transform units comprising the prediction unit. The skip decision indicates whether or not the prediction unit comprises a skipped prediction unit during encoding. The skip decision for the prediction unit is provided to a downstream node of the video encoding pipeline.