1. A method of estimating and/or compensating motion in video images, the method comprising: selecting an image segment (B 12 ) of a given video image (P 2 ); defining a search area (S) around the image segment, the defining being based on ranges of possible motion vectors (V) for the image segment; and retrieving image data related to said search area; the method being characterized in that the search area (S) is defined to have its center offset (CO) from a center of the image segment (B 12 ).