Patent ID: 8275035

Claim:
A video coding apparatus comprising: a block dividing section that divides each of frames of a video signal into a plurality of blocks; an intraprediction section that generates prediction signals by a plurality of intra prediction modes for each of the blocks divided by the block dividing section; an interprediction section that generates prediction signals by a plurality of interprediction modes for each of the blocks divided by the block dividing section; and a prediction mode determination section that selects an optimum prediction mode from among the plurality of intraprediction modes and the plurality of interprediction modes, the prediction mode determination section comprising: an interprediction mode determination section that selects a first prediction mode candidate from among the plurality of the interprediction modes; a candidate limiting section that selects a group of candidates from among the plurality of the intraprediction modes to be either one of (1) intraprediction modes using a DCT block size that is the same with a DCT block size used in the first prediction mode candidate or (2) intraprediction modes using a block size that is the same or smaller than a block size used in the first prection mode candidate; an intraprediction mode determination section that selects a second prediction mode candidate from among the group of candidates selected by the candidate limiting section; and an intra-inter-prediction mode determination section that selects one of the first prediction mode candidate and the second prediction mode candidate as the optimum prediction mode.