Transmission control device and method, recording medium, and program

[0043]FIG. 2 shows a typical structure of the transmitting apparatus 11 practiced as the invention. An operation unit 27 accepts the user's operation input and notifies relevant blocks in the apparatus of the operation information corresponding to the user's operation thus accepted. Illustratively, by manipulating the operation unit 27, the user designates a video data compression method (i.e., encoding method) such as MPEG-4 or JPEG 2000 for use in sending video data to the receiving apparatus 13 (FIG. 1). Information designating the compression method (encoding method) is supplied from the operation unit 27 to a picture encoding unit 22 and an initial rate determination unit 24. The operation unit 27 also supplies the initial rate determination unit 24 with a property of the application set by the user manipulating the operation unit 27. The properties of the application will be discussed later.

[0044] The picture acquisition unit 21 is formed illustratively by a camcorder or a digita

[0114]FIG. 10 is a block diagram showing a typical structure of the transmitting apparatus 11 practiced as the invention. Of the reference numerals in FIG. 10, those already used in FIG. 2 designate like or corresponding parts, and descriptions of these parts will be omitted where redundant. More specifically, the transmitting apparatus 11 in FIG. 10 has basically the same structure as that of its counterpart in FIG. 2 except that the initial rate determination unit 24 is replaced by another initial rate determination unit 61.

[0115] As in the case of the initial rate determination unit 24 in FIG. 2, the initial rate determination unit 61 in FIG. 10 is supplied with the property of pictures that are acquired by the picture acquisition unit 21 or sent from outside the apparatus 11. Like the initial rate determination unit 24 in FIG. 2, the initial rate determination unit 61 is fed with information indicating the encoding method designated by the user manipulating the operation unit 27, t