1. A method comprising: producing, with a processor, two or more scalability layers of a scalable data stream, wherein each of said two or more scalability layers has a different coding property, is associated with a scalability layer identifier and is characterized by a first set of syntax elements comprising at least a profile and a second set of syntax elements comprising at least one of a level or hypothetical reference decoder (HRD) parameters; inserting a first scalability layer identifier value in a first elementary unit including data from a first of two or more scalability layers; causing the first of said two or more scalability layers to be signaled with said first and second set of syntax elements in a first parameter set elementary unit such that the first parameter set elementary unit is readable by a decoder to determine the values of the first and second set of syntax elements without decoding a scalability layer of said scalable data stream; inserting the first scalability layer identifier value in the first parameter set elementary unit; inserting a second scalability layer identifier value in a second elementary unit including data from a second of two or more scalability layers; causing the second of said two or more scalability layers to be signaled with said first and second set of syntax elements in a second parameter set elementary unit such that the second parameter set elementary unit is readable by the decoder to determine the coding property without decoding the scalability layer of said scalable data stream; inserting the second scalability layer identifier value in the second parameter set elementary unit, wherein values of the first set of syntax elements in the first parameter set elementary unit are valid in an instance in which the first elementary unit is processed and the second elementary unit is ignored or removed, wherein values of the second set of syntax elements in the first parameter set elementary unit are valid in an instance in which the first elementary unit is processed and the second elementary unit is removed, wherein values of the first set of syntax elements in the second parameter set elementary unit are valid in an instance in which the second elementary unit is processed, and wherein values of the second set of syntax elements in the second parameter set elementary unit are valid in an instance in which the second elementary unit is processed.