A method and system are provided to encode a video sequence into a compressed bitstream. An encoder receives a video sequence from an image-capture device, together with metadata associated with the video sequence, and codes the video sequence into a first compressed bitstream using the metadata to select or revise a coding parameter associated with a coding operation. Optionally, the video sequence may be conditioned for coding by a preprocessor, which also may use the metadata to select or revise a preprocessing parameter associated with a preprocessing operation. The encoder may itself generate metadata associated with the first compressed bitstream, which may be used together with any metadata received by the encoder, to transcode the first compressed bitstream into a second compressed bitstream. The compressed bitstreams may be decoded by a decoder to generate recovered video data, and the recovered video data may be conditioned for viewing by a postprocessor, which may use the metadata to select or revise a postprocessing parameter associated with a postprocessing operation.