A video encoding method for encoding a series of images of original video data into an encoded video, comprises setting a periodic intra refresh pattern for the encoding of the series of images; setting a number of delta frames to be added between consecutive intra refresh frames of the periodic intra refresh pattern, thereby adjusting the intra refresh periodicity of the encoded video stream; and encoding the series of images of original video data into the encoded video stream using the set periodic intra refresh pattern and the set number of delta frames to be added between consecutive intra refresh frames. During the encoding, a current intra refresh frame is set to directly refer to a previous intra refresh frame and each delta frame added in between two consecutive intra refresh frames is set to only refer to a previous one of the two consecutive intra refresh frames.