PURPOSE: To quickly carry out a recording operation by freezing supplied video information responding to a switch operation and recording it on a recording medium, such as a memory card, a floppy disk, by means of a 'START' switch operation.

CONSTITUTION: At the time of recording, video data read from a VRAM3 is compressed at an encoding/decoding section (codec) 3b and written in a RAM3c. At the time of reproducing, video data read from a memory card 17 or an FD 18 is written in the RAM3c of a companding section 3 via a memory card I/F section 12 or an FDI/F section 13 and a data address bus reversly. Data read out of the RAM3c is expanded at the codec section 3b and written in a VRAM3a. Data read from the VRAM3a is sent to a D/A converter 2 via a video bus, converted into an analog signal and supplied to a monitor as a video output.