The disclosure describes FGS video coding techniques that use cycle-aligned fragments (CAFs). The techniques may perform cycle-based coding of FGS video data block coefficients and syntax elements, and encapsulate cycles in fragments for transmission. The fragments may be cycle-aligned such that a start of a payload of each of the fragments substantially coincides with a start of one of the cycles. In this manner, cycles can be readily accessed via individual fragments. Some cycles may be controlled with a vector mode to scan to a predefined position within a block before moving to another block. In this manner, the number of cycles can be reduced, reducing the number of fragments and associated overhead. The CAFs may be entropy coded independently of one another so that each fragment may be readily accessed and decoded without waiting for decoding of other fragments. Independent entropy coding may permit parallel decoding and simultaneous processing of fragments.