Patent ID: RE44457

Claim:
A method of adaptive encoding at least a part of a current frame of a sequence of frames of framed data, with respect to a reference frame comprised in the sequence, the method comprising: dividing the reference frame into blocks and identifying selected blocks of the reference frame in accordance with the performance of a first sub-encoding that is applied to the reference frame; computing a characteristic based on the identifying of the blocks and from the frames of the sequence only those frames that are a reference frame, wherein the identifying of the blocks depends upon motion vectors determined for the blocks, and wherein the blocks of the reference frame have a first identity when the blocks are intra-coded or when the blocks have a substantial zero motion vector, the blocks of the reference frame have a second identity otherwise, the computed characteristic being based on: measures of prediction errors of blocks with the first identity; and measures of prediction errors of blocks with a second identity combined with the time elapsed between the current frame and the reference frame; performing the first sub-encoding on the current frame; and performing a second sub-encoding on the first sub-encoded current frame, the second sub-encoding adapting at least one encoding parameter based at least in part upon the computed characteristic.