Method and apparatus for communicating compressed video information

A method and apparatus for communicating compressed video information includes storing video information compressed based on a first compression method, such as a method with a high compression ratio, and transcoding the compressed video information to produce corresponding recompressed video information that is based on a second compression method, with a lower compression ratio such as standard JPEG compression or other suitable compression. The method and apparatus, if desired, may include sending the recompressed video information for a destination apparatus which may then suitably decompress the video information using a standard decompression technique. For example, storing the compressed image in a high compressed format, for example, in a piecewise basis may be done online while the camera, for example, is in use so that the image is properly captured and then, transcoding the compressed image to a different level of compression while the camera is offline.