Patent ID: 8531321

Claim:
A method of encoding a signal in a hierarchy including multiple levels of quality, the multiple levels of quality including a first level of quality and a second level of quality, the method comprising: processing a rendition of the signal at the second level of quality, the second level of quality higher than the first level of quality; producing a rendition of the signal at the first level of quality; generating reconstruction data, the reconstruction data specifying how to reconstruct, based on the rendition of the signal at the first level of quality, the rendition of the signal at the second level of quality in the hierarchy; and utilizing an entropy encoder to encode the reconstruction data, the entropy encoder producing an encoded value representative of symbols in the reconstruction data; wherein utilizing the entropy encoder further includes: analyzing the reconstruction data to produce decoding information, the decoding information including probability distribution information indicating a probability of the symbols in the reconstruction data; and storing the encoded value and the probability distribution information for subsequent decoding of the encoded value back into the reconstruction data.