An opportunistic automatic repeat request (ARQ) scheme was developed to support high-quality video transmission over cooperative decode-forward networks. The opportunistic ARQ is implemented in the form of distributed space-time block codes (STBCs) and the desired STBC for a certain channel state is de-termined by the diversity-multiplexing tradeoff principle. With good channel states, the source and relay may jointly retransmit the lost video packets using high-rate low-diversity codes while with bad chann...