Patent ID: 8160420

Claim:
An encoding apparatus for encoding a stream, comprising: an encoding section, including a processor, that encodes i) a stereoscopic image including a right image of the stereoscopic image and a left image of the stereoscopic image, and ii) a non-stereoscopic image, to form the stream; and an identification information section that provides i) a first identification information that is included in the stream, the first identification information indicating whether a coded image is a coded stereoscopic image or a coded non-stereoscopic image, ii) a second identification information that is included in the stream, the second identification information indicating whether the coded image is a coded progressive image or a coded non-progressive image, and iii) a third identification information that is included in the stream, the third identification information indicating whether the coded image is encoded from a first image which should be outputted as two frames or a second image which should be outputted as three frames; wherein the right image is different from the non-stereoscopic image and the left image is different from the non-stereoscopic image.