An apparatus has a conversion circuit, a precoder circuit, and a selection circuit. The conversion circuit converts user data b1, b2, b3 . . . bk to a coded sequence c0, c1, c2 . . . cq. The selection circuit selects c0 in the coded sequence c0, c1, c2 . . . cq such that the output of the precoder circuit has less than a maximum number q of transitions. The conversion circuit may include an encoder circuit to convert user data b1, b2, b3 . . . bk to a sequence c1, c2 . . . cq, and a transition minimization circuit to add c0 to the sequence c1, c2 . . . cq. The apparatus may have a circuit to add at least one additional bit, which may be a parity bit, to the coded sequence c0, c1, c2 . . . cq.