摘要 |
<p>A data compression assembly has several data-compression channels (DCC). The data-compression channels may be, for example, encoders which encode different programs in accordance with an MPEG standard. A data-compression channel comprises a data compressor (CMP) and a buffer-memory space (BUF). The data compressor compresses input data (D) so as to obtain compressed data (Dc). The buffer-memory space temporarily stores the compressed data and provides the compressed data in the form of an output data stream (DS).Indications (IND) of compressed-data quality (Q[Dc]) versus extent of compression (E[CMP]) are established for respective data-compression channels. A total output bit rate (Rtot) is partitioned over respective output data streams in dependence on these indications. The extent of compression in respective data-compression channels is controlled individually on the basis of output data stream bit rate (R) and amount of compressed data (F) stored in the buffer memory space. This allows a substantially constant quality ratio between the compressed data from respective data-compression channels as well as a substantially constant quality of the compressed data from an individual data-compression channel.</p> |