For TV broadcasting purposes encoding systems with related video encoders and
audio encoders are used. The audio and video delay are aligned before multiplexing
and transmitting the audio and video streams. According to a time stamping mechanism
input time stamps are generated which become linked with data to be encoded, and
are replaced before output by output time stamps, which are derived from the input
time stamps by using a data delay constant. The input time stamps are used to control
the delay of the encoding process and the output time stamps are indicating the
output time. In order to allow a switchable out-put delay the data delay constant
can be changed. Already assigned output time stamps remained unchanged. For data
for which output time stamps are not already assigned, the out-put time stamps
are calculated using the new delay constant.
