specification thus compared to the case of using only still pictures 32 sub pictures can be selected from the dvd video which supports multiple languages also if the still picture includes character information the increase in the resolution of the still picture is required for playing back the character information to distinct pictures so that the compression ratio cannot be increased and the background image and the character information are divided so that the compression ratio for the background is increased and characters can effectively be coded using a compression method for effectively compressing characters defined by the dvd video further fig4 is a block diagram of a recording reproducing apparatus for implementing the present invention the function of the recording reproducing apparatus for recording reproducing an audio video data including the catalog information using the dvd rom 210 is largely divided into recording and reproduction a description of the playback aspect of the embodiment has already been explained above in the context of the playback apparatus shown in fig3 the dvd playback processor 220 shown in fig3 is encompassed in a digital signal processor 320 the audio and video decoders 260 270 shown in fig3 are encompassed in the av codec and or host interface 310 the servo unit 230 shown in fig3 is encompassed in a servo 350 and the system controller 240 shown in fig3 is encompassed in a system controller 360 during recording the an codec and or a host interface 310 compression codes an externally applied an signal which includes the audio data the catalog information and the catalog playback information according to a predetermined compression scheme and supplies size information for the compressed data the digital signal processor dsp 320 receives the compressed a v data.