Digital motion picture decoding apparatus and digital motion picture decoding method

A digital motion picture decoding apparatus comprising an input buffer memory for storing coded data to be decoded, a reproduced picture memory for storing decoded picture data to be displayed, and a display picture deciding means for deciding from the picture data stored in the reproduced picture memory a reproduced picture to be output, said decoding means further comprising:

• a program changing means for changing the type of the coded data to be decoded;
• a program change detecting means for detecting from the output of the program changing means that the type of the coded data to be decoded is changed;
• a reproduced picture memory nullifying means for nullifying the data stored in the reproduced picture memory other than the data corresponding to the reproduced picture being currently displayed, when it is detected from the output of the program change detecting means that the change of the type of the coded data to be decoded makes the coded data not continuous in time sequence.

A digital motion picture decoding method comprising the steps of:

• detecting whether data is continuous in time sequence during decoding processing;
• and
• maintaining the display state of a reproduced picture being currently displayed when it is found in the first step that the data is not continuous in time sequence during the decoding processing.

A digital motion picture decoding method comprising the steps of:

• detecting whether data is continuous in time sequence during decoding processing;
• and
• nullifying data other than the one corresponding to a reproduced picture being currently displayed, when it is judged in the first step that the data is not continuous in time sequence during the decoding processing.