1. A method for inter-frame prediction decoding of a bitstream, the method comprising: receiving a bitstream at a decoder, the bitstream including a plurality of inter-frame predicted frames, a plurality of intra-frame predicted frames, and a 2-bit switch-select code for a macroblock of a first of the inter-frame predicted frames, wherein the 2-bit switch-select code designates a single previous frame as a reference frame of choice; selecting, at the decoder, a single reference frame from a set of candidate reference frames for forward inter-frame prediction for the macroblock of the first inter-frame predicted frame based on the 2-bit switch-select code, the set of candidate reference frames comprising at least three referenceable frames; and in a mode without interpolation between reference frames, decoding, by the decoder, the macroblock of the first inter-frame predicted frame by frame reference to the single selected reference frame, wherein the set of candidate reference frames for forward inter-frame prediction includes: (i) a most recent previous frame in display order from the first inter-frame predicted frame, and (ii) an intra-frame predicted frame more distant in previous display order than the most recent previous frame from the first inter-frame predicted frame.