Verfahren zur Reduzierung von Daten bei der Uebertragung und/oder Speicherung digitaler Signale mehrerer abhaengiger Kanaele

The description refers to a process for the reduction of data for the transmission and/or storage of digital signals of several dependent channels. The dependence of the signals in the channels, for example in a left and a right stereo channel, can be used for additional data reduction. Known processes such as middle/side coding or the intensity stereo process lead to perceivable interference in the case of poor signal composition. The process according to the invention avoids such interference by performing a coding of the channels only if there is sufficient spectral similarity of the signals in the two channels. Furthermore, an additional data reduction can be achieved using a process according to the invention by the fact that the associated spectral values are set to zero in those frequency bands in which the spectral energy of a channel does not exceed a preset fraction of the total spectral energy. Since the process is independent of the specific internal structure of the coding process, it can be used in many applications.