Multi-program video coding with joint rate control

This paper presents a joint coding scheme for multi-program video transmission in which the channel capacity is distributed among programs according to their content complexities. The program-dependent bit allocation is achieved by using the same quantization parameter for all the programs at each frame. The joint coding implements a joint rate control which controls the sum of the bit rates for all the programs, instead of each individual bit rate. Computer simulations demonstrate that joint coding is able to maintain a relatively stable quality among the programs as well as within a program, as compared to independent coding.