Patent ID: 7274740

Claim:
A method for transmitting video comprising: (a) defining a first set of frames and a first target bit rate for said first set of frames; (b) at least one of transcoding and encoding a first frame of said first set of frames based upon said first target bit rate; (c) transmitting said first frame of said at least one of transcoded and encoded first set of frames; (d) defining a second set of frames, wherein said second set of frames has at least one frame in common with said first set of frames, wherein said second set of frames has at least one frame not in common with said first set of frames, and a second target bit rate for said second set of frames; (e) at least one of transcoding and encoding a first frame of said second set of frames based upon said second target bit rate; (f) transmitting said first frame of said at least one of transcoded and encoded second set of frames; (g) wherein at least one of said first and second target bit rates is based upon a compression rate distortion model of at least one frame resulting from the output of said at least one of said transcoder and encoder; and (h) wherein at least one of said first and second target bit rates is based on the ratio of a first complexity measure to a second complexity measure, said first complexity measure based upon at least one frame resulting from the output of at least one of an encoder and a transcoder, and said second complexity measure based upon said at least one frame prior to said at least one of encoding and transcoding.