To make it possible to apply a coding device, a coding method, a program of the coding method, and a recording medium recording the program of the coding method to a recording and reproduction device which records video data on an optical disk by a MPEG2 format, for example, and reproduces; reduce quality impairment in case of dubbing in other recording medium; and record the video data in higher quality than a case directly recording on the other recording medium.

The device switches a generating code amount and a transfer rate on the basis of a degree of difficulty (DP) for coding, carries out coding process, and sets the transfer rate of a lower side of the switching in a transfer rate of another recording medium.