This application relates to the field of video coding technologies, and discloses a video coder and a corresponding method, to help improve video coding performance. In this application, encoding and decoding are collectively referred to as coding. A video coding method includes: determining a block split policy of a current picture block based on a size relationship between the width and the height of the current picture block; applying the block split policy to the current picture block to obtain a coding block; and reconstructing the obtained coding block to reconstruct the current picture block.