Patent ID: 7970051

Claim:
An apparatus, including at least one processor for encoding moving pictures by adaptively using a plurality of quantization weight matrices that are not related by a scalar, the apparatus comprising: an image transformation unit to transform an input image into one or more macroblocks; a quantization matrix determination unit to select a respective quantization weight matrix corresponding to a spatial characteristic of each of respective macroblocks from a plurality of quantization weight matrices for a luminance components of each macroblock that is determined to be an intra block, among the plurality of the quantization weight matrices, such that the quantization matrix determination unit individually selects the respective quantization weight matrix for each of the respective macroblocks based on a respectively determined spatial characteristics of each of the respective macroblocks; a quantization unit to quantize each of the respective macroblocks by using the selected respective quantization weight matrix; and a variable length encoding unit to variable length encode the quantized macroblocks to generate variable length encoded data with information specifying the selected quantization weight matrix, and wherein, when a result of a determination of a spatial characteristic of a determined first intra block of the input image is different from a result of a determination of a spatial characteristic of a determined second intra block of the input image, a different quantization weight matrix is selected from the plurality of quantization weight matrices for the luminance component for the first block than is selected for the second block.