Patent ID: 8411759

Claim:
A multiplexing apparatus for multiplexing coded streams with other information, the coded streams including coded pictures on a per randomly-accessible access unit basis, said multiplexing apparatus comprising: a first determining unit configured to determine delay amounts in two access units to be decoded sequentially, which are a first access unit and a second access unit, in the coded streams such that the delay amounts in the two access units become equal to each other in the case where the two access units are access units each having a different angle and are decoded sequentially changing angles from an angle of the first access unit which is a switching source to an angle of the second access unit which is a switching destination or in the case where the two access units are access units each having a same angle and are decoded sequentially, the delay amounts each being a time lag from a decoding time of a top picture in decoding order to a display time of a top picture in display order; a generating unit configured to code the pictures to be included in the two access units and generate the coded streams according to the delay amounts determined by said first determining unit; and a multiplexing unit configured to multiplex the coded streams generated by said generating unit and the other information, wherein the other information includes a flag indicating whether or not the two access units can be connected to each other seamlessly, and the flag is determined depending on whether or not the delay amounts in the two access units are equal to each other.