an image pickup unit for shooting an object to output an image signal;

an image processing unit for subjecting the image signal obtained by shooting the object to signal processing, and extracting image information including an image parameter that indicates a feature of a change in the image;

an audio acquisition unit for obtaining audio to output an audio signal;

an audio processing unit for subjecting the audio signal to signal processing, and extracting audio information including an audio parameter that indicates a feature of a change in the audio;

a parameter determination unit for checking the image parameter or the audio parameter to determine whether a shoot timing at which the image or the audio changes is appropriate as an edition point or not; and

an information generation unit for generating edition point information indicating a shoot timing which is determined to be appropriate as an edition point;

wherein an audio video stream including the image information, the audio information, and the edition point information is stored in a recording medium,

wherein said information generation unit

checks whether buffer data as image information before coding are stored in the image processing unit or not,

sets the edition point to a picture corresponding to a shoot timing at which the image, audio, or shooting condition changes, when the buffer data before coding are stored, and

sets the edition point to a head picture of a VOB unit as a unit of random access, which is closest to a shoot timing at which the image or audio changes, in a stream obtained by coding the image signal with the image processing unit, when the buffer data before coding are not stored, and

wherein said image processing unit generates a VOB unit so that the picture corresponding to the edition point becomes a head picture of the VOB unit, when buffer data before coding are stored in the image processing unit.