Methods and Systems disclosed to counteract spatial distortions introduced by imaging processes of multi-directional video frames, where objects may be projected to spherical or equirectangular representations. Techniques provided to invert the spatial distortions in video frames used as reference picture data in predictive coding, by spatially transforming the image content of the reference picture data before this image content is being used for the prediction of input video data in prediction-based coders and decoders.