A video encoding method includes (i) determining a current bit rate of a communication channel between a destination device and a source device that stores an input video frame, and (ii) generating a current reconstructed frame and an encoded bitstream at least in part via inter-frame coding of a current input video frame of a sequence of input video frames using a previously-generated reconstructed frame generated at least in part via inter-frame coding of a previous input video frame. The current reconstructed frame is a compressed version of the current input video frame. When both (i) a subsequent bit rate, determined after said inter-frame coding, is less than a threshold and (ii) the current bit rate exceeds the threshold, the method includes: (a) generating a downscaled reconstructed frame at least in part by downscaling the current reconstructed frame; and (b) appending the encoded bitstream with a bit sequence representing the downscaled reconstructed frame.