APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR PROCESSING GROUPS OF FIELDS IN A VIDEO DATA COMPRESSION SYSTEM

A video compression system which is based on the image data compression system developed by the Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG) uses various group-of-fields configurations to reduce the number of binary bits used to represent an image composed of odd and even fields of video information, where each pair of odd and even fields defines a frame. According to a first method, each field in the group of fields is predicted using the closest field which has previously been predicted as an anchor field. According to a second method, intra fields (I-fields) and predictive fields (P-fields) are distributed in the sequence so that no two I-fields and/or no two P-fields are at adjacent locations in the sequence. According to a third method, the number of I-fields and P-fields in the encoded sequence is reduced by encoding one field in a given frame as a P-field or a B-field where the other field is encoded as an I-field and encoding one field in a further frame as a B-field where the other field is encoded as a P-field.