A method and system for encoding user data bits for magnetic recording channels that produces a stationary trellis and that limits the burst error propagation to three user bytes. The input data bits are grouped into even bytes and odd bytes. The even bytes are encoded first into even codewords, then each of the odd bytes is encoded into odd codewords based on the even codeword for the even byte preceding each odd byte and on the even codeword for the even byte following each odd byte. The encoding eliminates the most common error events associated with Partial Response Maximum Likelihood channels by: (i) disallowing sequences of four consecutive ones in the codewords, (ii) allowing sequences of three consecutive ones to begin only on certain bit positions in certain codewords, (iii) allowing only certain beginning sequences and ending sequences for odd and even codewords in specific situations, and (iv) changing specific bits in the odd and even codewords based on disallowed codeword sequences.