REDUCTION OF SPATIAL PREDICTORS IN VIDEO COMPRESSION

A system and a method are disclosed for encoding and decoding a video frame using spatial prediction. The video frame is separated into a plurality of image blocks, and a plurality of spatial predictors is created for an image block using methods well-known in the art. The set of predictors is reduced to a set containing fewer spatial predictors before continuing the coding process for the block. The reduction of spatial predictors involves comparing a plurality of spatial predictors and grouping or processing a subset of the spatial predictors to a set of representative spatial predictors. Because the number of spatial predictors is reduced, fewer bits may be used in a bit stream to identify a chosen spatial predictor, thus improving the efficiency of the coding process.