(7) In the video information encoding method according to (6), the step of applying the SAO may include setting an SAO application region for chroma independently of an SAO application region for luma.
(8) In the video information encoding method according to (6), the step of applying the SAO may include classifying intensities of chroma pixels and applying a band offset to a band located in a section of a high occurrence frequency in the entire intensity range.
(9) In the video information encoding method according to (6), the step of applying the SAO may include determining to which of a case where the intensity of at least one of neighboring chroma pixels is greater than the intensity of a current pixel and a case where the intensity of at least one of neighboring chroma pixels is less than the intensity of the current chroma pixel a relationship between the current chroma pixel and the neighboring chroma pixels belongs and applying an edge offset to the current chroma pixel depending on the determination result.
(10) In the video information encoding method according to (6), the step of transmitting information may include separately transmitting the SAO information for luma and chroma.
(11) According to still another aspect of the invention, there is provided a video information decoding method including the steps of: receiving information; generating a reconstructed block on the basis of the received information; applying a deblocking filter to the reconstructed block; and applying a sample adaptive offset (SAO) to the reconstructed block to which the deblocking filter has been applied, wherein the step of applying the SAO includes adaptively applying the SAO depending on an SAO application region to which the SAO will be applied.