In video compression standards such as MPEG and H.263. rate control is one of the key components for good coding performance. This paper presents a simple adaptive rate control scheme using a piecewise linear approximation model. While conventional buffer control approach is performed by adjusting the quantization parameter linearly according to the buffer fullness. the proposed approach uses a piecewise linear approximation model derived from logarithmic relation between the quantization parameter and bitrate in data compression. In addition. a forward analyzer performed in the spatial domain is used to improve image quality. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed method provides better performance than the conventional one and reduces the fluctuation of the PSNR per frame while maintaining the quality of the reconstructed frames at a relatively stable level.