Patent ID: 8630347

Claim:
A video decoding apparatus for decoding a compression-encoded video stream, comprising: a prediction decoding unit which generates one of an intra prediction image and an inter prediction image from the video stream and decoded images thereof based on an encoding mode of an object to be decoded; a residual decoding unit which generates a residual decoded image from the video stream based on a quantization parameter of the object to be decoded; an adding unit which generates a decoded image by adding the one of an intra prediction image and an inter prediction image generated by the prediction decoding unit to the residual decoded image generated by the residual decoding unit; a filter process unit which applies at least a deblocking filter process for reducing a block distortion onto the decoded image generated by the adding unit; a determining unit which determines whether or not a current processing load is higher than a threshold value and which, if it is determined that the current processing load is higher than the threshold value, extracts information on an encoding mode from the video stream to determine, based on the extracted information, whether to simplify an inter prediction process for generating the inter prediction image; and a simplifying unit which gradually simplifies the inter prediction process based on a determination result of the determining unit, wherein the threshold value is an average value of objects to be decoded in decoded past pictures or slices, or a value obtained by adding an offset value to the average value, and wherein the object to be decoded uses percentages of B slices in loop processing in units of slices and of B slices in loop processing in units of pictures, and percentages of bi-prediction macro-blocks in loop processing in units of macro-blocks and of bi-prediction macro-blocks in loop processing in units of pictures or slices.