A digital video recording apparatus is provided with the ability to permit a user to record images while watching those images without any time delay. The digital video recording apparatus includes an ADC for analog-to-digital converting and outputting either demodulated analog broadcast signals of a selected channel or analog AV signals inputted from an external device, an MPEG encoder for MPEG-encoding the ADC output in order to create stream data, a record-play unit for controlling so that data can be recorded onto or read from a recording medium, a background memory for buffering the stream data by a certain unit, and a controller for controlling so as to combine the stream data that is buffered in the background memory and the stream data that is encoded and created by the MPEG encoder subsequent to the buffered stream data, and to store the combined data into a recording medium, when a recording command is entered.