METHOD OF AND ARRANGEMENT FOR CODING DIGITAL VIDEO SIGNALS AND CORRESPONDING DECODING ARRANGEMENT

Method of coding images converted into digital video signals in accordance with a format having three-dimensional blocks of the signals, wherein the method includes the following preliminary steps: (a) estimation of a principal movement from image to image for associating a displacement vector with each image, with respect to the preceding image, said principal vector being the vector for which the image-to-image difference is minimum, and; (b) scan conversion with a view to defining the format of the three-dimensional blocks by dividing the sequence of video signals corresponding to images into groups each corresponding to N consecutive images and by defining within each of these groups the three-dimensional blocks based on M lines, and P pixels per line on the one hand, in the image plane and, on the other hand, N successive planes corresponding to n images of the group, the N two-dimensional blocks of M lines by P pixels which compose each three-dimensional block of one and the same group being spatially shifted from one image to the next by the said displacement vector estimated for each image.