Patent ID: 7236687

Claim:
An encoding apparatus for encoding picture data, comprising: an encoder for encoding said picture data at a variable rate; a multiplexer for multiplexing input video and audio streams; a source packetizer for encoding an input multiplexed stream into an AV stream composed of source packets in accordance with an application format of a recording medium on which to record the AV stream; and a controller having an encoding mode in which the volume of encoded data is substantially proportionate to an elapsed time and another encoding mode in which it is not guaranteed that the volume of encoded picture data is proportionate to the elapsed time, said controller controlling the volume of encoded picture data depending on the pertinent encoding mode, said controller setting a multiplexing bitrate of a transport stream and an average bitrate of video encoding, controlling the encoder so that a video stream is encoded at a variable bitrate such that a preset average bitrate is guaranteed from one preset time domain to another, controlling the multiplexer so as not to produce a null-packet in case there is no elementary stream to be rendered into a transport packet and appending an arrival stamp to each transport packet to form a source packet by controlling the source packetizer.