Patent ID: 8358697

Claim:
A method of encoding an image, the method comprising: encoding a first picture, restoring the first picture, and storing the first picture, from among pictures included in a group of pictures, in a first storage unit; prediction encoding a current picture by using one of the first picture that is initially encoded from among the pictures included in the group of pictures and stored in the first storage unit and a second picture previously encoded, restored, and stored in a second storage unit before the current picture is prediction encoded; restoring the prediction-encoded current picture and storing the prediction-encoded current picture in the second storage unit; and prediction encoding a next picture that is to be encoded after the current picture using the prediction-encoded current picture stored in the second storage unit, wherein in the encoding, restoring, and storing the first picture comprises encoding the first picture by performing prediction encoding, transformation, and quantization on the first picture, and wherein the first picture is quantized by using a quantization coefficient having a value smaller than a predetermined quantization coefficient to have a high quality.