Abstract. In this paper, we examine the performance of specific implementations of multiple description coding and of layered coding for video streaming over error-prone packet switched networks. We compare their performance using different transmission schemes with and without network path diversity. It is shown that, given specific implementations, there is a large variation in relative performance between multiple description coding and layered coding depending on the employed transmission scheme. For scenarios where the packet transmission schedules can be optimized in a rate-distortion sense, layered coding provides a better performance. The converse is true for scenarios where the packet schedules are not rate-distortion optimized.