A codec configured to operate in a parallel mode extends the current AVC standard in order to provide support for coding and storage of high resolution still image pictures in parallel with the AVC coding of a lower resolution video. The parallel mode codec is configured according to the modified AVC standard and is capable of capturing an AVC video stream while concurrently capturing high resolution still images at random intervals of the video stream. Residual information stored as an enhancement layer, is used to generate one or more high resolution still images pictures using the up-sampled decoded lower resolution video at the decoder side. A base layer carries lower resolution video. The enhancement layer and the base layer are transmitted in parallel, as a multi-layer stream, from an encoder on the transmission side to a decoder at the receiving side. To carry enhancement information, the AVC standard is extended to include data field(s) for SEI Message Definitions, sequence parameter sets, and a new NAL Unit.