The picture dividing module 105 can divide an input picture into at least one process unit. Here, the process unit may be a prediction unit (hereinafter, referred to as a “PU”), a transform unit (hereinafter, referred to as a “TU”), or a coding unit (hereinafter, referred to as a “CU”).
The prediction module 110 includes an inter prediction module that performs an inter prediction process and an intra prediction module that performs an intra prediction process, as will be described later. The prediction module 110 predicts the process unit of the picture divided by the picture dividing module 105 to generate a prediction block. The process unit of a picture in the prediction module 110 may be a CU, a TU, or a PU. It may be determined whether the prediction performed on the corresponding process unit is inter prediction or intra prediction, and specific details (for example, a prediction mode) of the prediction methods may be determined. The process unit subjected to the prediction process may be different from the process unit of which the prediction method and the specific details are determined. For example, the prediction method and the prediction mode may be determined by the PU units and the prediction process may be performed by the TU units.