To achieve improved jitter performance within prescribed bandwidth constraints, a receiver (140) samples a digital signal (11) upon each of n periodic sample clock pulses that occur during the interval t, where n is chosen such that log.sub.2(n+1) is an integer (x) greater than zero. At the each of each interval t, the receiver generates a x+1-bit sample value having a first bit indicating the value of the digital signal being sampled, and x remaining bits which collectively indicate a sample interval during which the digital signal changed states if such a change did occur When a change does occur, the receiver inverts the first bit of each sample value upon decoding to coincide with the change in the digital signal.