Patent ID: 8355439

Claim:
A signal processor to which a first image signal encoded by a first compressing and encoding method is inputted and in which the first image signal is transcoded to a second image signal encoded by a second compressing and encoding method, the signal processor comprising: a picture selector which extracts pictures of one or more specific types in frames or fields from the first image signal and generates a subset image signal of the first image signal; a video stream supplying section which supplies the first image signal to the picture selector; a first decoder which decodes the subset image signal generated by the picture selector; and a first encoder which encodes the decoded image signal by a second compressing and encoding method; wherein the picture selector uses the extracted pictures to generate the subset image signal whose effective length is reduced; and the video stream supplying section supplies, to smoothly have the extraction processing in the picture selector carried out, the first image signal to the picture selector at a bit rate that a decoding rate of the subset image signal by the first decoder is multiplied by a reciprocal number of a remove rate of the pictures.