Patent 7602526 was granted and assigned to Panasonic on October, 2009 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
A picture coding method according to the present invention includes: a coding step (S102, S103) of coding, picture parameter sets (PPS) to be used for decoding all the pictures (pic) included in a random access unit (RAU) made up of plural pictures and a sequence parameter set (SPS); and a parameter set placement step (S104) of placing, in the random access unit (RAU), the parameter set (PPS, SPS) coded in the coding step (S102, S103).