Patent ID: 7711050

Claim:
An apparatus which converts a first encoded image signal to a second encoded image signal, said apparatus comprising: signal-decoding means for decoding the first encoded image signal and outputting an image signal and a first motion vector for use in decoding the first encoded image signal; signal-converting means for generating a second image signal from the image signal by resolution and frame rate conversion; motion-vector converting means for generating a second motion vector from the second image signal based on the first motion vector; and signal-encoding means for encoding the second image signal into the second encoded image signal using the second motion vector, wherein, the motion-vector conversion is performed using a macro-block type information unit based on the first motion vector, the motion vector converting means generates a motion vector which indicates the half pixel position of an integral pixel after down-sampling, and the macro-block type information unit includes information pertaining to whether the first motion vector was subject to frame prediction or field prediction and whether the field prediction was top-field prediction or bottom field prediction.