This disclosure describes content-adaptive coding and modulation techniques. In particular, this disclosure describes techniques in which both a multimedia coding mode and a physical layer modulation scheme are adaptively selected based on content of a multimedia sequence. When the content changes such that either the coding or the modulation scheme can be improved, the coding and/or modulation may be changed to better optimize to the changed content. In one aspect, this disclosure provides a method of processing multimedia data, the method comprising selecting a multimedia coding mode for an encoder to encode the multimedia data and a physical layer modulation scheme for transmission of the multimedia data based on content of the multimedia data.