Patent ID: 8194751

Claim:
A moving picture decoding method for decoding, on a picture-by-picture basis, a coded stream, wherein the coded stream includes (i) coded picture data for each picture included in the coded stream, (ii) display order information for each picture included in the coded stream, where the display order information for each picture is a picture order count (POC) and has a value indicating the display order of the respective pictures, and (iii) a flag inserted into the coded stream so as to indicate a position among the coded picture data where the values of the display order information of the pictures in the coded stream are sequential or non-sequential, where being sequential is being incremental by one and being non-sequential is a state other than being incremental by one, and wherein the flag is stored in the coded stream or in random access point information in a file system to convey the coded stream, the moving picture decoding method comprising: an information extraction step of extracting the flag indicating a position among the coded picture data where the values of the display order information are non-sequential; and a management step of managing a storage memory area for storing a decoded picture based on the flag, wherein, when the flag is extracted in the information extraction step, a clip including unused pictures is searched, during the management step, for the decoded picture stored in the storage memory area, and a picture whose position is earliest in a display order among the unused pictures is determined as a picture to be removed.