A system is provided that is usable in a processing system for decoding a sequence including a plurality of pictures, wherein the group of pictures includes an anchor picture serving as a reference for coding all of the plurality of pictures and at least one reference picture serving as a reference for coding at least some of the other of the group of pictures, the plurality of pictures defined in a plurality of hierarchical layers according to coding order. The coding includes coding an lth subset of the plurality of pictures of the first hierarchical layer according to an lth hierarchical layer picture complexity, and after coding the lth set of the plurality of pictures of the lth hierarchical layer, coding a [mutually exclusive] lth+1 subset of the plurality of pictures of a lth+1 hierarchical layer according to a second hierarchical layer picture complexity measure.