Method and system for three-dimensional compression of digital video signals

Methods for compressing digital video signals that fully utilize temporal compression techniques. Each of the methods disclosed compresses digital video signals not only in the spatial domain, as with current implemented MPEG compression methods, but also in the temporal domain. A group of video signals is input to a signal compressor (16). The signal compressor (16) performs discrete cosine transforms in both the spatial and temporal domain. The transformed data is then input into a three-dimensional quantization matrix (18), where rate and distortion optimization parameters are calculated for compression purposes. In a first method, rate-distortion performance and transmission order are optimized for the quantized, three-dimensional transform coefficients. In a second method, rate-distortion performance is optimized for the quantized, three-dimensional transform coefficients. Temporal dequantization and inverse transform are performed before transmitting the two-dimensional transform coefficients in MPEG-compatible intraframe format. The data is transmitted to a signal decompressor (40).