A method for compressing and transmitting a sequence of video frames represented by arrays of digital pixel values includes the following steps: transmitting a representation of a first frame (I.sub.1) of the sequence; deriving a sorting permutation P.sub.1 of the first frame; using the sorting permutation of the first frame, P.sub.1, to approximately sort a second frame (I.sub.2) of the sequence, to obtain approximately sorted frame P.sub.1(I.sub.2); and compressing and transmitting the approximately sorted frame P.sub.1(I.sub.2).