Abstract: The invention relates to a color video coding method using the so-called 3D-SPIHT algorithm applied to the color space constituted by the luminance plane Y and the chrominance planes U and V in the 4:2:0 format. A wavelet decomposition of the U and V planes is performed over a number of resolution levels which is the number of resolution levels of the wavelet decomposition of the luminance plane minus one. The full resolution color U or V plane may be seen as an approximation of the full resolution luminance plane, and, the size of said full resolution color U or V plane being the same as the size of the first level approximation in the multiresolution decomposition of the Y plane, the n-th resolution level of the luminance has the same size as the (n?1)-th level of the chrominance. Each pixel (i,j) of the approximation sub-band at the lowest resolution of the Y plane is associated with the pixel at the same location in the corresponding sub-band of the U and V planes.