(57) ABSTRACT Methods of optimal encoding of signals to be compatible with characteristics of target receivers while meeting constraints pertinent to sizes of encoded signals or capacities of paths communicating signals to the target receivers are disclosed. The methods are based on analytical modeling of the encod ing process guided by experimental data relating measured performance indicators of encoded signals of diverse classi fications to respective encoding parameters. A computation ally-efficient technique is devised to determine optimal encoding parameters based on pre-processed data derived from the analytical models. The methods may be imple mented at an encoder of original signals or a transcoder of pre-encoded signals.