Compressed picture data editing apparatus and method

An editing apparatus and the like are provided for splicing two data streams of compressed picture data at an arbitrary splice point without breaking down the VBV buffer. The editing apparatus inserts between a main stream and a sub-stream compressed by the MPEG-2/Video Method an inserted stream of which a first picture is a black I picture and succeeding pictures are repeat P pictures of which all macro blocks are skipped macro blocks. In this inserted stream, a VBV delay of a picture to be transmitted next, after a last picture in the main stream, is written as a VBV delay of a first picture in the main stream into the picture header. Further, a stuffing byte of which the data amount is calculated based on the bit occupancy in the VBV buffer by the sub-stream at an arbitrary splice point is transmitted along with the last picture in the inserted stream.