Scalable Video Coding

Scalable Video Coding (SVC) is a coding method used to enable multiple resolutions of video to be stored in one stream using prediction with errors to store the difference between resolutions. The principle on which SVC is based is that the receiver can adapt to available bandwidth (and other potentially limited resources) and still receive Video in real-time. See http://iphome.hhi.de/marpe/download/icip06_svc.pdf

A reference implementation of SVC as an H.264 extension is here: http://ip.hhi.de/imagecom_G1/savce/downloads/SVC-Reference-Software.htm