A method of encoding a motion vector in a video coding process, the method comprising: determining a motion vector relative to a reference frame for a current block (127, 137) of video data, wherein a location of a reference frame is based on a prediction direction; determining one of a plurality of modes for a motion vector prediction process for the current block (127, 137) of video data, the determined mode being one of a merge mode and an adaptive motion vector prediction mode; and performing, according to a checking pattern, the motion vector prediction process for the current block using the determined mode and a set of candidate blocks (100, 120) comprising a below-left candidate block (101, 111, 121, 131), a left candidate block (102, 112, 122, 132), an above candidate block (104, 114, 124, 134), a right-above candidate block (103, 113, 123, 133), a left-above candidate block (105, 125), and a temporal candidate block (106, 115), the checking pattern defining an order for checking each of candidate blocks in the set of candidate blocks, wherein, if the determined mode is a merge mode, one candidate block in the set of candidate blocks is designated as an additional candidate block, and wherein the merge mode has a maximum number N of candidate blocks for use in performing the motion vector prediction process and the set of candidate blocks is defined as the first N available candidate blocks in the set of candidate blocks along the checking pattern, wherein N is equal to 5, and wherein the additional candidate block is used in the merge mode if another of the candidate blocks of the set of candidate blocks is unavailable or invalid. determining a motion vector relative to a reference frame for a current block (127, 137) of video data, wherein a location of a reference frame is based on a prediction direction; determining one of a plurality of modes for a motion vector prediction process for the current block (127, 137) of video data, the determined mode being one of a merge mode and an adaptive motion vector prediction mode; and performing, according to a checking pattern, the motion vector prediction process for the current block using the determined mode and a set of candidate blocks (100, 120) comprising a below-left candidate block (101, 111, 121, 131), a left candidate block (102, 112, 122, 132), an above candidate block (104, 114, 124, 134), a right-above candidate block (103, 113, 123, 133), a left-above candidate block (105, 125), and a temporal candidate block (106, 115), the checking pattern defining an order for checking each of candidate blocks in the set of candidate blocks, wherein, if the determined mode is a merge mode, one candidate block in the set of candidate blocks is designated as an additional candidate block, and wherein the merge mode has a maximum number N of candidate blocks for use in performing the motion vector prediction process and the set of candidate blocks is defined as the first N available candidate blocks in the set of candidate blocks along the checking pattern, wherein N is equal to 5, and wherein the additional candidate block is used in the merge mode if another of the candidate blocks of the set of candidate blocks is unavailable or invalid.