Method, medium, and system encoding and/or decoding moving pictures by adaptively applying optimal prediction modes

Abstract

A method, medium, and system encoding and/or decoding a moving picture. The moving picture encoding method may include selecting a prediction mode that is optimal for the macro blocks, which correspond to each other, of the color components of a current image based on the characteristics of a predetermined image, generating a predicted image for the current image according to the selected prediction mode, and encoding a moving picture using the predicted image. An optimal prediction mode can be adaptively applied to the macro blocks, which correspond to each other, of the color components, thereby increasing the moving picture's encoding and decoding efficiencies.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A decoding apparatus comprising:
 a predicted image generation unit to entropy decode a bitstream at a block level to restore intra prediction mode information, to obtain, from the restored intra prediction mode information, an intra luma prediction mode of a luma component of a current block, to obtain an intra chroma prediction mode of a chroma component corresponding to the intra luma prediction mode of the luma component according to one of predetermined modes, wherein the intra chroma prediction mode of the chroma component is identical to the intra luma prediction mode of the luma component, and to obtain a predicted block using the intra chroma prediction mode of the chroma component; and   a restored image generation unit to obtain residue by decoding the bitstream, and obtain a restored image using the obtained residue and the obtained predicted block,   wherein the intra luma prediction mode and the intra chroma prediction mode are used to determine a reference pixel from among adjacent pixels in a previously restored block when obtaining the predicted block.