A process for compressing and decompressing non-keyframes in sequential
sets of contemporaneous video frames making up multiple video streams
where the video frames in a set depict substantially the same scene from
different viewpoints. Each set of contemporaneous video frames has a
plurality frames designated as keyframes with the remaining being
non-keyframes. In one embodiment, the non-keyframes are compressed using
a multi-directional spatial prediction technique. In another embodiment,
the non-keyframes of each set of contemporaneous video frames are
compressed using a combined chaining and spatial prediction compression
technique. The spatial prediction compression technique employed can be a
single direction technique where just one reference frame, and so one
chain, is used to predict each non-keyframe, or it can be a
multi-directional technique where two or more reference frames, and so
chains, are used to predict each non-keyframe.