A block of size N×M of a video frame can be either split into smaller blocks in n different ways (e.g. horizontal, vertical, quad, etc.), or alternatively it can be coded using one out of m different coding modes (e.g. intra, inter, bi-prediction, etc.). Since splitting into smaller sub-blocks and coding the N×M block in one of the m possible ways are mutually exclusive, there are n+m distinct possibilities for processing the block further. The n+m possible ways of processing the N×M blocks are assigned a code (e.g., a number) and coded with a codeword derived from a VLC table. This achieves efficient combined coding of split information and other block-level parameters.