Parallel coding of digital pictures is described. A digital picture is divided into two or more vertical sections. Two or more corresponding Stage 1 encoder units can perform a first stage of entropy coding on the two or more vertical sections on a row-by-row basis. The entropy coding of the vertical sections can be performed in parallel such that each Stage 1 encoder unit performs entropy coding on its respective vertical section and returns a partially coded Stage 1 output to a Stage 2 encoder unit. Each partially coded Stage 1 output includes a representation of data for a corresponding vertical section that has been compressed by a compression factor greater than 1. The Stage 2 encoder unit can generate a final coded bitstream from the partially encoded Stage 1 output as a Stage 2 output.