Patent ID: 7460720

Claim:
A method of defining qualities for a digital image signal encoded beforehand, comprising: defining, by a content creator, a predetermined number of quality modes, each quality mode corresponding to a predetermined number of quality layers of the digital image signal, on the basis of rate information provided via a graphical interface and perception quality information provided to said content creator via a visualization of the digital image signal decoded, wherein a digital image in a given one of the quality modes is obtained by decoding the digital image signal encoded beforehand using said predetermined number of quality layers, and wherein only the quality modes defined by said content creator are made accessible to a final user, wherein the rate information is represented in the form of a graph illustrating the size of a decoded image as a function of the number of quality layers, and wherein the perception quality information is represented in the form of a cursor illustrating the number of layers corresponding to each quality mode, displayed simultaneously with the decoded digital image signal.