Range Comparison Reordering for Speed up of CABAC Algorithm

A system and method is provided for ordering intervals rLPS and rMPS of a range to increase speed of binary symbol decoding in a binary arithmetic decoder. The method comprises the steps of: placing rLPS at a bottom of the range; enabling subtraction for rMPS to occur in parallel with comparison of rLPS and offset; and, reducing time that it takes to decode a bin. A method is also provided for performing context selection for a given syntax element, comprising the steps of: first, comparing information regarding properties of neighboring pixels with a threshold; second, adding results of threshold comparison of neighboring pixels, to provide a secondary result; and using the secondary result to select a context.