Aspects of the present invention relate to systems and methods for selectively determining a quantization parameter based on coding parameters. In some embodiments, a quantization parameter selection may be based on the presence of non-zero transform coefficients as well as other parameters. Some embodiments relate to rewriting a multi-layer bitstream to a single-layer bitstream with a quantization parameter selected with reference to transform coefficients. Some embodiments convert a scalable, multi-layer video sequence into a single-layer, non-scalable video sequence that is compatible with legacy devices.