Optimal control of 3Deeps Action Specs (also called 3Deep Viewing Spectacles in previous patent applications) for viewing motion pictures filmed in 3D with a visual effect of 3D requires calculation of a single motion vector that characterizes the direction and speed of motion for each motion picture frame. This invention discloses the calculation of the characteristic motion vector or motion estimation value from temporal redundancy information that is stored in the compressed video file bit stream. The principles of this invention can be used with any compressed video file that incorporates temporal redundancy for compression, such as MPEG.