Patent ID: 7319721

Claim:
An image information conversion apparatus comprising: an image information circuit, including a compression information analysis section, an information buffer, and a complexity calculation circuit, converting first image compression information inputted to said image information conversion apparatus into second image compression information to be outputted from said image information conversion apparatus; each of the first image compression information and the second image compression information including at least intra-image coded pictures and inter-image predictive coded pictures; and a scene change detection section in circuit with said complexity calculation circuit, operable when said image information circuit calculates, based on a variable representative of a complexity of a screen for each frame of the inputted first image compression information, a target code amount for each frame of the second image compression information to be outputted for detecting, prior to conversion of an intra-image coded picture of the first image compression information into an inter-image predictive coded picture of the second image compression information, whether or not a scene change is included in a frame of the intra-image coded picture to be converted, wherein, when said scene change detection section detects that a scene change is included in the frame to be converted, said scene change detection section limits the conversion by said conversion means from the intra-image coded picture of the first image compression information into an inter-image predictive coded picture of the second image compression information, wherein said scene change detection section uses the product of a code amount stored in said information buffer and allocated to each frame and an average quantization scale of the first image compression information as the variable representative of the complexity of the screen for the frame to detect whether or not a scene change is included in the frame, and wherein the code amount allocated to each frame of the inputted first image compression information includes a code amount at least of a brightness signal component.