FIELD: information storage equipment. SUBSTANCE: method involves storing units of groups of pictures consisting of arbitrary combinations of I image encoded using information only from image, B image encoded using movement compensating estimation based on previous and/or future reference image, and P image encoded using movement compensating estimation based on previous reference image. Low-frequency data of each synchronization unit of I image are stored to each track of I image, B image and P image with spaces. High-frequency data of each synchronization unit of I image are stored sequentially in free region for I image track. P image data are sequentially stored into region which is left after storage of low-frequency I image data to tracks of P image. B image data are sequentially stored into region which is left after storage of low-frequency I image data to tracks for B image. This results in possibility of constant information output rate for special modes and decreased information losses in special modes. EFFECT: improved image quality while keeping generally high compression by inter-frame encoding. 8 cl, 7 dwg
