Accelerating the calculation of squared Euclidean distances (SED), especially in VQ, is a topic of intensive research. This paper presents a new scheme to speed up this calculation called the compact look-up table (CLUT) method. This method employs a small table and some simple operations to speed up the calculation of SED. The experimental results show that our method takes up a very small amount of extra memory without causing a deterioration in the quality of the image compared with previous methods. In addition, CLUT also provides a very flexible solution for different design strategies when the trade-offs between cost and performance are considered.