Methods, systems, and apparatuses for defining a target bit rate and collections of coefficients of source data, as well as a global coding order of the collections of coefficients. A plurality of coding units and corresponding allowable truncation points for each of said collections of coefficients and a local coding order of said coding units can be defined. A rate value and a distortion value for each of said coding units can be defined along with an adaptive threshold value for each of said coding units. The encoding of the collections of coefficients is performed in turn according to the global coding order. During the encoding, if a predetermined termination criterion is not met for a particular coding unit, the particular coding unit will be included in an output code-stream, and if the termination criterion is met, an encoding of the one of the collection of coefficients will be terminated.