During a recording operation, when receiving compressed moving-picture data from the moving-picture compression encoder, the code arrangement converter rearranges the data so that the core frame data may be distribution-recorded in a particular place on each track of the tape, for example, in the head portion of the main data area. In normal reproduction, the reproduced main data undergoes error correction and deinterleaving at the format reverse-converter. The resulting date is rearranged by the code arrangement reverse-converter to form the compressed moving-picture data in the same arrangement in recording. This compressed moving-picture data passes through the moving-picture expansion decoder and appears at the output terminal. During high-speed reproduction, for example, 9-fold speed reproduction, the main data in a frame corresponding to one of core frames 0 to 8 is reproduced. The resulting signal undergoes error correction and deinterleaving at the format reverse-converter. This deinterleaved data is supplied to the local read data arrangement circuit, which extracts one core frame of data. This data is decoded at the moving-picture expansion decoder and supplied at the output terminal.