Methods and apparatus for encoding and decoding video subframes (e.g., lower-resolution video) with a DVC video coder are disclosed. The disclosed embodiments allow a DVC video coder to efficiently code a subframe. The disclosed encoder embodiments redistribute blocks of data from a subframe to correspond with the staggered locations used for video segment creation. This separates video segments at the DVC coder output into two groups--those largely or completely composed of subframe data, and those containing discardable data. The present invention allows a DVC coder to be used efficiently for several different video resolutions, or in a low-resolution system.