Systems, devices, and methods for encoding a plurality of images by an encoder where the encoder determines a set of subbands associated with an input image, determines a set of wavelet coefficients associated with each subband, generates a wavelet tree comprising a set of nodes and a maximum quantization level for a set of descendants of the set of nodes of the wavelet tree. Then, determines if the maximum quantization level is less than a threshold and sets the wavelet coefficient to zero if it is not, otherwise encodes the maximum quantization level, and encodes the set of wavelet coefficients for transmission in a bit stream comprising the encoded maximum quantization level and the encoded set of wavelet coefficients.