Patent ID: 7203370

Claim:
An image processing apparatus which records onto a recording medium in a compressed state a plurality of images periodically input and periodically outputs a plurality of compressed images reproduced from said recording medium in an expanded state, comprising: a plurality of codecs each of which executes an image compression process and an image expansion process; a compression instructor for instructing at least one codec in art available state out of said plurality of codecs to execute the image compression process; an expansion instructor for instructing at least one codec in the available state out of said plurality of codecs to execute the image expansion process; a determiner for determining whether or not a predetermined condition is satisfied; an occupant for occupying said plurality of codecs for said compression instructor when a determination result of said determiner is affirmative; and a canceller for canceling an occupation state of said occupant on at least one of said plurality of codecs when the determination result of said determiner is negative, wherein the expansion instructor waits to issue an instruction in response to an occupation process of said occupant and issues the instruction at a time of said canceller canceling the occupation state; wherein the image processing apparatus makes a parallel expansion process performable when more than one codec of the plurality of codecs are in the available state, and wherein the image processing apparatus performs a single expansion process when only one codec of the plurality of codecs is in the available state.