Abstract: A method and system for compressing television video signals for digital transmission allows full motion pictures to be transmitted. The analog signal is digitized and stored in a memory A in consecutive pixel value locations. The values of the color components of each pixel value are summed and stored in a memory B. In the second frame, the sum of each pixel value is compared with the sums stored in memory B. If the difference is greater than a filter number, then that particular pixel is transmitted by the control computer. The total number transmitted for each frame is compared to a maximum allowable data rate, and the filter number is adjusted accordingly.