Patent ID: 8548045

Claim:
A method for encoding a video sequence of video frames, each video frame including a plurality of macro blocks, wherein at least a part of the video frame is encoded based on a first quantization parameter value for generating a first bit stream of encoded macro blocks, the method comprising: initiating transmission of a first subset of the encoded macro blocks from the first bit stream; generating at least one second quantization parameter value; encoding, after the step of initiating the transmission of the first subset of encoded macro blocks, at least the part of the video frame, which is not represented by encoded macro blocks in the first subset, based on the at least one second quantization parameter value for generating at least one second bit stream of encoded macro blocks; selecting encoded macro blocks from the macro blocks in the first bit stream and the at least one second bit stream and merging the selected macro blocks into a third bit stream of encoded macro blocks representing the video frame, wherein the macro blocks are selected from the first and the at least one second bit stream such that the third bit stream reaches, as closely as possible, a bit budget of the video frame; and initiating transmission of a second subset of the encoded macro blocks, not belonging to the first subset, from the third bit stream.