A method and apparatus for deriving a temporal motion vector predictor (MVP) are disclosed. The MVP is derived for a current block of a current picture in Inter, or Merge, or Skip mode based on co-located reference blocks of a co-located block. The co-located reference blocks comprise an above-left reference block of the bottom-right neighboring block of the co-located block. The reference motion vectors associated with the co-located reference blocks are received and used to derive the temporal MVP. Various configurations of co-located reference blocks can be used to practice the present invention. If the MVP cannot be found based on the above-left reference block, search for the MVP can be continued based on other co-located reference blocks. When an MVP is found, the MVP is checked against the previously found MVP. If the MVP is the same as the previously found MVP, the search for MVP continues.