diff --git a/libavcodec/utvideo.c b/libavcodec/utvideo.c
index 5828d5ec0d..b14e56e0d8 100644
--- a/libavcodec/utvideo.c
+++ b/libavcodec/utvideo.c
@@ -39,9 +39,3 @@ int ff_ut_huff_cmp_len(const void *a, const void *b)
     const HuffEntry *aa = a, *bb = b;
     return (aa->len - bb->len)*256 + aa->sym - bb->sym;
 }
-
-int ff_ut10_huff_cmp_len(const void *a, const void *b)
-{
-    const HuffEntry *aa = a, *bb = b;
-    return (aa->len - bb->len)*1024 + aa->sym - bb->sym;
-}
diff --git a/libavcodec/utvideo.h b/libavcodec/utvideo.h
index cf0bb28c44..2975f287a7 100644
--- a/libavcodec/utvideo.h
+++ b/libavcodec/utvideo.h
@@ -99,6 +99,5 @@ typedef struct HuffEntry {
 
 /* Compare huffman tree nodes */
 int ff_ut_huff_cmp_len(const void *a, const void *b);
-int ff_ut10_huff_cmp_len(const void *a, const void *b);
 
 #endif /* AVCODEC_UTVIDEO_H */
diff --git a/libavcodec/utvideodec.c b/libavcodec/utvideodec.c
index f014e90606..8b47c14d98 100644
--- a/libavcodec/utvideodec.c
+++ b/libavcodec/utvideodec.c
@@ -43,45 +43,44 @@
 static int build_huff(const uint8_t *src, VLC *vlc, int *fsym, unsigned nb_elems)
 {
     int i;
-    HuffEntry he[1024];
-    int last;
     uint32_t codes[1024];
     uint8_t bits[1024];
-    uint16_t syms[1024];
-    uint32_t code;
+    uint16_t codes_count[33] = { 0 };
 
     *fsym = -1;
     for (i = 0; i < nb_elems; i++) {
-        he[i].sym = i;
-        he[i].len = *src++;
-    }
-    qsort(he, nb_elems, sizeof(*he), ff_ut10_huff_cmp_len);
+        if (src[i] == 0) {
+            *fsym = i;
+            return 0;
+        } else if (src[i] == 255) {
+            bits[i] = 0;
+        } else if (src[i] <= 32) {
+            bits[i] = src[i];
+        } else
+            return AVERROR_INVALIDDATA;
 
-    if (!he[0].len) {
-        *fsym = he[0].sym;
-        return 0;
+        codes_count[bits[i]]++;
+    }
+    if (codes_count[0] == nb_elems)
+        return AVERROR_INVALIDDATA;
+
+    for (unsigned i = 32, nb_codes = 0; i > 0; i--) {
+        uint16_t curr = codes_count[i];   // # of leafs of length i
+        codes_count[i] = nb_codes / 2;    // # of non-leaf nodes on level i
+        nb_codes = codes_count[i] + curr; // # of nodes on level i
     }
 
-    last = nb_elems - 1;
-    while (he[last].len == 255 && last)
-        last--;
-
-    if (he[last].len > 32) {
-        return -1;
-    }
-
-    code = 0;
-    for (i = last; i >= 0; i--) {
-        codes[i] = code >> (32 - he[i].len);
-        bits[i]  = he[i].len;
-        syms[i]  = he[i].sym;
-        code += 0x80000000u >> (he[i].len - 1);
+    for (unsigned i = nb_elems; i-- > 0;) {
+        if (!bits[i]) {
+            codes[i] = 0;
+            continue;
+        }
+        codes[i] = codes_count[bits[i]]++;
     }
 #define VLC_BITS 11
-    return ff_init_vlc_sparse(vlc, VLC_BITS, last + 1,
-                              bits,  sizeof(*bits),  sizeof(*bits),
-                              codes, sizeof(*codes), sizeof(*codes),
-                              syms,  sizeof(*syms),  sizeof(*syms), 0);
+    return init_vlc(vlc, VLC_BITS, nb_elems,
+                    bits,  sizeof(*bits),  sizeof(*bits),
+                    codes, sizeof(*codes), sizeof(*codes), 0);
 }
 
 static int decode_plane10(UtvideoContext *c, int plane_no,