Joint transcoding of multiple MPEG video bitstreams

This paper addresses the problem of bit-rate conversion of a previously compressed video. We provide an MPEG joint transcoder for transcoding several video bitstreams simultaneously. We show that joint transcoding reduces the quality variation between multiple video sequences, as compared to independently transcoding each sequence at a fixed bit rate. Hence, joint transcoding results in a better utilization of the channel capacity. The joint transcoder can be used in a congested communication network as an alternative to data/packet dropping, and in applications which require multiplexing video signals onto a fixed communication channel such as video servers providing video on demand (VOD) service