Patent ID: 7936825

Claim:
A moving picture coding method for coding a moving picture comprising a plurality of pictures, each picture having a prescribed number of pixels, said method comprising: a level identifier output step of selecting, with a selecting unit, a coding level which indicates a level of the coding processing for the moving picture and outputting a level identifier for identifying the selected coding level; a judging step of judging, with a judging unit, whether the moving picture is to be coded, based on a maximum number of pixels allowed for a picture according to the selected coding level; a coded data generating step of generating, with a generating unit, coded data of the moving picture by coding the moving picture according to the selected coding level; and a coded sequence generating step of multiplexing, with a multiplexing unit, the level identifier and the coded data to generate a code sequence; wherein the level identifier is an identifier that identifies i) a maximum in-frame pixel number which conforms to the selected coding level; the maximum in-frame pixel number being a maximum pixel number allowed for a picture of the moving picture, and ii) a maximum storage pixel number which conforms to the selected coding level, the maximum storage pixel number indicating an amount of data that can be stored in a picture memory; wherein said coded data generating step includes a predictive coding step of predictively coding a picture to be coded with reference to a reference picture which has been coded; wherein a maximum number of candidate reference pictures which can be stored in the picture memory is calculated based on a vertical pixel number and a horizontal pixel number of a picture in the moving picture which is to be coded and the maximum storage pixel number identified by the level identifier; and wherein the vertical pixel number (h) and the horizontal pixel number (w) of the picture in the moving picture that has been judged to be coded in the judging step satisfy the following condition: h×w <=(the maximum in-frame pixel number), where the vertical pixel number (h) is a multiple of 16, and the horizontal pixel number (w) is a multiple of 16.