Patent ID: 8270040

Claim:
An image-encoding apparatus to which moving image data and condition data, which is data related to a shooting condition of the moving image data, are input, the image-encoding apparatus comprising: an encoding unit that performs intra-frame encoding or inter-frame encoding on each picture of the moving image data to output encoded data that includes an encoded group that includes at least one encoded picture; an encoding distortion calculating unit that calculates an amount of encoding distortion that occurs in an encoding process performed by the encoding unit; an inter-frame correlation calculating unit that calculates a correlation between frames in the moving image data; an index value calculating unit that assigns weights, which are changeable in accordance with an instruction from a user, to the correlation output from the inter-frame correlation calculating unit, the condition data, and the amount of encoding distortion calculated by the encoding distortion calculating unit, and calculates an index value that is used for determination for division of the moving image data into encoded groups based on the weighted output correlation, the weighted condition data, and the weighted calculated amount of encoding distortion; a threshold value determining unit that determines a threshold value based on the correlation output from the inter-frame correlation calculating unit, the condition data, and the amount of encoding distortion calculated by the encoding distortion calculating unit; and an encoding control unit that outputs a control parameter for controlling at least the structure of the encoded group in the encoding unit based on the index value output from the index value calculating unit; wherein the encoding control unit outputs the control parameter for controlling the structure of the encoded group in the encoding unit when it is determined by comparing the index value with the threshold value that the index value exceeds the threshold value.