Asymptotic properties of expected distortion are studied for the delay-time-weighted probability of error distortion measure
![d_n(x,\\tilde{x}) = n^{-1} \\sum _{t=0}^{n-1} f(t + n)[l - \\delta (x_t,\\tilde{x}_t)]](/images/tex/6612.gif)
,, where

and

are source and reproducing vectors, respectively, and

is the Kronecker delta. With reasonable block coding and transmission constraints

is reproduced as

with a delay of

time units. It is shown that if the channel capacity is greater than the source entropy

, then there exists a sequence of block length

codes such that
![E[d_n(X,\\tilde{X})] rigjhtarrow 0](/images/tex/6620.gif)
as

even if

at an exponential rate. However, if

grows at too fast an exponential rate, then
![E[d_n(X,\\tilde{X})] \\rightarrow \\infty](/images/tex/6622.gif)
as

. Also, if

and

then
![E[d_n(X,\\tilde{X})] \\rightarrow \\infty](/images/tex/6622.gif)
as

no matter how slowly

grows.