Methods and systems for the transmission of a high quality background reference frame (HQRF). Such a reference frame is sent from a video encoder to a video decoder in a number of portions, or slices. In the context of this description, a slice of a frame is a set of blocks in the frame, where the slice is coded separately from other slices of the frame. The slices are sent at respective intervals, so that the decoder receives the high quality background reference frame over time, in a piecemeal fashion. The slices can be buffered at the decoder, and the buffer may be continuously updated and used for reference at any point.