Next, a case in which the orthogonal transformation process is performed will be described below. A transform coefficient in case the orthogonal transformation process is performed on residuals in case an original image is an image of middle-range components is of values illustrated in (h) of
As described above, in case an input image is an image of middle-range components, when the transformation skip process is performed by intra-prediction, the decoded image may become an image of lowered image quality compared with the case in which the orthogonal transformation process is performed. In the other operation of the image coding apparatus, therefore, the image quality of decoded images is restrained from being lowered by limiting selective operation of intra-prediction or inter-prediction on the basis of the determined result as to whether the transformation skip process is to be performed or not or whether there exists a TU in the transformation skip mode or not, etc.