Patent ID: 7058677

Claim:
A method for selectable quantization, the method comprises: performing a discrete cosine transform function upon a macroblock of Motion Picture Expert Group (MPEG) encoded data of an encoded signal to produce discrete cosine transform data, wherein the discrete cosine transform data includes a matrix of data values; receiving discrete the cosine transform data of the encoded signal; obtaining a quantization table; obtaining a plurality of quantization scaling factors; generating a plurality of quantized value sets of the discrete cosine transform data based on the quantization table and plurality of quantization scaling factors; determining quantization selection criteria based on complexity of the matrix of data values, wherein greater complexity of the matrix of data values results in a lower level of desired quantization and wherein lesser complexity of the matrix of data values results in a higher level of desire quantization; and selecting one of the plurality of quantized value sets based on the quantization selection criteria to produce quantized data.