Patent ID: 7809060

Claim:
A moving picture stream generation apparatus which generates a moving picture stream including a random access unit comprising pictures including an I-picture as a starting picture in a decoding order, said moving picture stream generation apparatus comprising: a first coding unit operable to code first supplemental information included in the random access unit, the first supplemental information indicating pieces of picture type information of the pictures included in the random access unit, and the pieces of picture type information being placed in an order corresponding to the decoding order of the pictures; a second coding unit operable to code second supplemental information included in the random access unit, the second supplemental information indicating pieces of picture structure information of the pictures included in the random access unit, and the pieces of picture structure information being placed in the order corresponding to the decoding order of the pictures; and a generating unit operable to generate the moving picture stream by adding the coded first supplemental information and the second supplemental information to the I-picture, wherein picture types indicated by the pieces of picture type information of the respective pictures include at least: the I-picture on which intra coding is performed; a P-picture on which inter coding is performed with reference to a picture per block which is a basic unit in coding; a first B-picture on which inter coding is performed with reference to two pictures per block which is a basic unit in coding, and which can be referred to by a picture; and a second B-picture on which inter coding is performed with reference to two pictures per block which is a basic unit in coding, and which cannot be referred to by any other pictures, wherein picture structures indicated by the pieces of picture structure information of the respective pictures include information indicating whether the picture structure of each respective picture is a field structure, a first frame structure, or a second frame structure, wherein the first frame structure is for displaying the picture using two display fields, and wherein the second frame structure is for displaying the picture using three display fields by repeatedly displaying the first display field at a time of using 3-2 pull down.