A wireless multimedia communication method for improving wireless video transmission quality by using physical layer channel status information (CSI) in a video application layer. In this method, the transmitting end decides the maximum transmission rate (Rmax) of the system based on both SNR information of receiving antennas fed back from the receiving end and a bit error rate required by the system. At the same time, a hierarchical encoding method is used, in the video application layer, to divide a bit stream into a basic layer and an expansion layer. In a case of employing an FGS encoding method, the transmission is caused to start with the basic layer, and the number of bits is increased in the expansion layer just until the bit rate of the video stream has become below Rmax. In a case of employing an encoding method based on a signal-to-noise ratio hierarchy, spatial hierarchy or time hierarchy, if Rmax is large enough to accommodate both the basic and expansion layers at the same time, both are transmitted; otherwise, only the basic layer is transmitted.