System and method for transporting a compressed video and data bit stream over a communication channel

An apparatus for bandwidth sharing between a first stream and a second stream, the apparatus comprising

• a first bit rate converter having an input and an output, the input of the first bit rate converter coupled to receive the first stream, the first bit rate converter for changing a bit rate of the first stream to a first bit rate;
• a second bit rate converter having an input and an output, the input of the second bit rate converter coupled to receive the second stream, the second bit rate converter for changing a bit rate of the second stream to a second bit rate;
• and
• a multiplexer having a first input, a second input and an output, the first input of the multiplexer coupled to output of the first bit rate converter, the second input of the multiplexer coupled to output of the second bit rate converter, the multiplexer determining an intended bit rate profile for the first stream and allocating bandwidth to the first stream, and allocating any remaining bandwidth to the second stream.

A method for modifying a bit rate of a bit stream to use an available bandwidth of a channel, the method comprising the steps of:

• determining the bandwidth of the channel;
• receiving the bit stream;
• converting the bit stream to have a bit rate less than or equal to the bandwidth of the channel wherein converting the bit stream includes modifying data in the bit stream;
• and
• transmitting the converted bit stream over the channel.

A method for bandwidth sharing between a first stream and a second stream, the method comprising the steps of:

• bit rate converting the first stream to produce a converted first stream;
• bit rate converting the second stream to produce a converted second stream;
• and
• multiplexing between the converted first stream and the converted second stream based on an intended bit rate profile for the first stream and allocating bandwidth to the converted first stream, and allocating any remaining bandwidth to the converted second stream.