Patent ID: 7418007

Claim:
A method for processing a plurality of channels in a statistical multiplexer, comprising the steps of: allocating an encoding bit rate for coding a current picture of each channel according to a bit rate need parameter thereof; and for each channel, allocating a transmission bit rate for transmitting the current picture after encoding thereof, and providing a modeled decoder buffer that receives transmitted pictures therefrom; wherein, for each channel, the transmission bit rate is based on the channel's encoding bit rate, and is allocated following a system delay that follows the allocated encoding bit rate, to minimize a rate mismatch between an input and an output of the modeled decoder buffer, and wherein for at least one of the channels, when a next update of the allocated transmission bit rate can be implemented, following an implementation delay, before a decode time of a next picture, a maximum limit is set on the allocated transmission bit rate at a current time (CT) in proportion to a fullness of the modeled decoder buffer at a time (CT+delay), and in inverse proportion to a time period between (CT+delay) and the decode time.