Patent ID: 7085322

Claim:
A method of processing multiple streams of video frames comprising: employing multiple encode processes to encode multiple streams of video frames in parallel; directly exchanging encode process to encode process at least one input statistic or encode statistic employed by each encode process of the multiple encode processes; dynamically adapting encoding of at least one stream of video frames of the multiple streams of video frames based on relative complexity of the video frames comprising the multiple streams of video frames employing the at least one input statistic or encode statistic directly exchanged between the encode processes; and wherein said dynamically adapting comprising employing a joint rate control strategy distributed among said multiple encode processes, and wherein each encode process of said multiple encode processes ascertains said at least one input statistic or encode statistic for its respective stream of video frames being encoded, saves said at least one input statistic or encode statistic, and shares said at least one input statistic or encode statistic directly with said multiple encode processes during said exchanging to allow determination by at least one encode process of the multiple encode processes of a total statistic corresponding to a sum of the at least one input statistics or encode statistics generated by said multiple encode processes, and wherein said directly exchanging further comprises sharing the total statistic by the at least one encode process with the multiple encode processes, and responsive to obtaining of the total statistic, at least one encode process employs the total statistic and its own at least one input statistic or encode statistic during said dynamically adapting encoding to facilitate said dynamically adapting encoding of the at least one stream of video frames of the multiple streams of video frames.