Abstract: An apparatus for decoding an encoded digital video signal for the reproduction of an original video image signal comprises an image data partitioning circuit for dividing difference pixel values on the basis of the current macro block into four equal-sized current subblocks, motion compensation units and a formatter for providing predicted current macro block data, adders for providing the reconstructed current macro block signals by combining the predicted current macro block data and the difference pixel data. The motion compensation units have four memories for storing the reconstructed current macro block signals as the divided previous subblock data.