1. A method for encoding and decoding quantized sequences in Wyner-Ziv encoded video transmissions, comprising: estimating a minimum field size from a given statistical model of a relationship between a quantized sequence of a current video frame and side information obtained from previous video frames decoded from previously encoded quantized sequences; and using the statistical model to encode a quantized sequence x into a syndrome sequence z and decode the quantized sequence x from syndrome sequence z and said side information, said encoding not having access to said side information, and said encoding and said decoding each being able to separately construct a statistical model that is the same as said given statistical model.