A new coding system designed specifically for use with video available from Dolby Laboratories. The audio framing is matched to the video framing, which allows synchronous and seamless switching or editing of audio and video without the introduction of gaps or A/V sync slips. All of the common video frame rates, including 30/29.97, 25, and 24/23.976, can be supported with matched Dolby E audio frame sizes. The Dolby E coding technology is intended to provide approximately 4:1 reduction in bit rate. The reduction ratio is intentionally limited so that the quality of the audio may be kept very high even after a number of encode-decode generations. The fact that operations such as editing and switching can be performed seamlessly in the coded domain allows many coding generations to be avoided, further increasing quality. A primary carrier for the Dolby E data will be the AES/EBU signal. The Dolby E coding will allow the two PCM audio channels to be replaced with eight encoded audio channels. A VTR PCM track pair will become capable of carrying eight independent audio channels, plus the accompanying metadata. The system is also intended to be applied on servers and satellite links. A time delay when encoding or decoding Dolby E is unavoidable. In order to facilitate the provision of a compensating video delay, the audio encoding and decoding delay have been fixed at exactly one frame. When applied with video recording formats which incorporate frame based video encoding, it can be relatively easy to provide for equal video and audio coding delays. When applied with uncoded video, it may be necessary to provide a compensating one frame video delay. .