Patent ID: 8537900

Claim:
A method for allocating bits between one temporal base layer and at least one temporal enhancement layer, comprising a) determining a quality difference between at least one picture of the temporal base layer and at least one picture of the at least one temporal enhancement layer, and b) determining a new bit allocation for the temporal base layer and the at least one temporal enhancement layer, based on the determined quality difference, wherein the new bit allocation pertains to a plurality of pictures of the layer for the new bit allocation, wherein the determining the quality difference comprises subtracting an average Quantizer Parameter (QP) of a set of macroblocks of the at least one picture of the temporal base layer from an average QP of a set of macroblocks of the at least one picture of the at least one temporal enhancement layer, wherein, when the quality difference is less than a lower threshold, the determining the new bit allocation comprises adding a first adjustment value of bits to a bit allocation for a plurality of pictures of the base layer and subtracting a second adjustment value of bits from a bit allocation for a plurality of pictures of the at least one enhancement layer, and wherein, when the quality difference is greater than an upper threshold, the determining the new bit allocation comprises subtracting a third adjustment value of bits from the bit allocation for the plurality of pictures of the base layer and adding a fourth adjustment value of bits to the bit allocation for the plurality of pictures of the at least one enhancement layer.