Short for
bi-directional frame, or
bi-directional predictive frame, a
video compression method used by the
MPEG standard. In a motion sequence, individual frames of pictures are grouped together (called a
group of pictures, or
GOP) and played back so that the viewer registers the video’s spatial motion. As the name suggests, B-frames rely on the frames preceding and following them. B-frames contain only the data that have changed from the preceding frame or are different from the data in the very next frame.
P-frames and B-frames are also referred to as delta frames.
Also see P-frame and I-frame.
