PURPOSE: To realize a coder for moving picture data of hierarchical structure with simple configuration.

CONSTITUTION: An output signal of a priority layer is obtained at an output terminal 10 and an output signal of a non-priority layer is obtained at an output terminal 40 through an input terminal 1, subtractors 2, 22, adders 7, 27, 33, converters 3, 23, quantizers 5, 25, inverse converters 6,26 and frame memories 8, 28. A prediction error signal Δx being an output of the inverse converter 6 is added to an output y0 of the frame memory 28 at the adder 33 to obtain a prediction signal eH. Thus, the number of the adders and the subtractors is reduced by one in comparison with a conventional coder.