An encoder provided according to an aspect of the present invention uses an approach which seeks to limit the number of bits in each of a sequence of video frames to a same upper limit. By providing such a restriction, additional budget (i.e., more number of bits that can be used for the encoded bits for the frame) may be available for encoding of later received frames in the sequence, thereby avoiding quality degradation with respect to reproduction of such later frames. According to another aspect of the present invention, a quantization parameter used during encoding is controlled to enforce such a limit. According to one more aspect of the present invention, a quantization parameter is generated for a video frame by examining content corresponding to the same video frame.