A video signal recording and reproducing apparatus is provided that is capable of reducing the encoding amount required for video recording thereby to record a longer video signal while suppressing deterioration of image quality when the video is displayed. An apparatus is also provided that is similarly capable of efficiently transmitting the video signal with a smaller transmission capacity during transmission of the video signal. A structure constituting the present invention comprises: a decoding unit which decodes an inputted video signal into video frames; a decimation unit which decimates the number of video frames decoded by the decimation unit; an encoding unit which encodes the video frames decimated by the decimation unit into encoded video signals; and a storage device which stores the video signals encoded by the encoding unit, wherein the decimation unit performs decimation for each video signal.