diff --git a/libavcodec/svq1enc.c b/libavcodec/svq1enc.c
index 3d9055864ed51ab5472f7fa451104e3a322b65c4..d1a55bdfd66fe0bc497e8580502011c0e062ce29 100644
--- a/libavcodec/svq1enc.c
+++ b/libavcodec/svq1enc.c
@@ -486,6 +486,7 @@ static av_cold int svq1_encode_init(AVCodecContext *avctx)
 
     s->avctx= avctx;
     s->m.avctx= avctx;
+    s->m.picture_structure = PICT_FRAME;
     s->m.me.temp      =
     s->m.me.scratchpad= av_mallocz((avctx->width+64)*2*16*2*sizeof(uint8_t));
     s->m.me.map       = av_mallocz(ME_MAP_SIZE*sizeof(uint32_t));