We present a generic video codec, which is able to compress image sequences efficiently regardless of their input formats. In addition, this codec supports a wide range of bit rates, without significant changes in its main architecture. A multiresolution representation of the data is generated by a Gabor-like wavelet transform. The motion estimation is performed by a locally adaptive multigrid block-matching technique. This codec can handle both interlaced and progressive input sequences, the temporal redundancies being exploited by interframe/interfield coding. A perceptual quantization of the resulting coefficients is then performed, followed by adaptive entropy coding. Simulations using different test sequences demonstrate a reconstructed signal of good quality for a wide range of bit rates. Thereby demonstrating that this codec can perform generic coding with reduced complexity and high efficiency.