Patent ID: 7388912

Claim:
A method implemented in computer executable form in a video encoding process for adjusting a targeted bit allocation T for a picture that is to be encoded and transmitted to a decoder, the method comprising: computing at an encoder a targeted bit allocation T for encoding the picture and storing in an encoder buffer; determining a threshold from at least one desired occupancy level of a buffer model characterizing a decoder buffer status of the decoder; adaptively adjusting the targeted bit allocation T at the encoder at least partially in response to a comparison of an occupancy status of the buffer model with the threshold; and providing the adjusted targeted bit allocation T to the video encoding process, wherein the targeted bit allocation T prior to adaptive adjustment is an original targeted bit allocation T and the threshold is a second threshold, the second threshold corresponds to T high , where T high comprises: T high = V status - V high + bit_rate picture_rate , where V status is the occupancy status, V high is the desired occupancy level, bit_rate is a bit rate of a transmission channel from the encoder to the decoder and picture_rate is a display rate of pictures, and further comprising: comparing the original targeted bit allocation T to the second threshold; and adaptively adjusting the original targeted bit allocation T when the original targeted bit allocation T is below the second threshold but not otherwise.