Patent ID: 7680182

Claim:
An image encoding device that encodes an image to be encoded, said image encoding device comprising: a setting unit configured to set a first upper limit and a second upper limit to a same value when a level is equal to or lower than a predetermined reference value, and to set the first upper limit higher than the second upper limit when the level is higher than the predetermined reference value, the first upper limit indicating an upper limit of an amount of code per still picture when encoding the image to be encoded as a still picture and the second upper limit indicating an upper limit of an amount of code per moving picture when encoding the image to be encoded as a moving picture, and the level being a parameter that indicates an upper limit value of encoding parameters including a bitrate, a frame rate, and an image size; an encoding unit configured to encode, based on the level, the image to be encoded so as to satisfy the first upper limit when encoding the image to be encoded as the still picture, and to encode, based on the level, the image to be encoded so as to satisfy the second upper limit when encoding the image to be encoded as the moving picture; and an output unit configured to output the still picture and the moving picture that are encoded.