Adaptive video quality

Abstract

A method for encoding a first stream of video data comprising a plurality of frames of video, the method, for one or more of the plurality of frames of video, comprising the steps of: encoding in a hierarchical arrangement a frame of the video data, the hierarchical arrangement comprising a base layer of video data and a first enhancement layer of video data, said first enhancement layer of video data comprising a plurality of sub-layers of enhancement data, such that when encoded: the base layer of video data comprises data which when decoded renders the frame at a first, base, level of quality; and each sub-layer of enhancement data comprises data which, when decoded with the base layer, render the frame at a higher level of quality than the base level of quality; and wherein the steps of encoding the sub-layers of enhancement data comprises: quantizing the enhancement data at a determined initial level of quantization thereby creating a set of quantized enhancement data; associating to each of the plurality of sub-layers a respective notional quantization level and allocating, for each of the plurality of sub-layers, a sub-set of the set of quantized enhancement data based on the respective notional quantization level.