METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR ENCODING DIGITAL SIGNALS, METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DECODING THE CODED SIGNALS, AND MEDIUM FOR RECORDING THE CODED SIGNALS

摘要

An apparatus comprising a time-series sample buffer (32) for forming inputted signals into blocks; an orthogonal-transformation encoder (33) for converting the signal of every block into spectrum signals; and an entropy encoder (32) for totally or partly encoding the spectrum signals of every block into variable length codes. The entropy encoder (32) has means for setting the upper limit of the number of bits of the signals of every block encoded and outputted, and a circuit (52) for counting the number of bits to stop the output of part of the spectrum signals of a block requiring the number of bits which exceeds the upper limit. The recording or transfer of a part of the spectrum signals of a block requiring the number of bits exceeding the upper limit is impeded, making it possible to reduce the amount of the information which is encoded, recorded or transferred, and decoded.