An apparatus and a method for transforming picture information can significantly reduce the bit rate. A picture information transform apparatus for receiving as input the compressed picture information obtained by coding the picture information of a plurality of picture type images by ways of orthogonal transform and motion compensation includes a variable length decoder 4 for performing a variable length decoding operation on the input compressed picture information, an inverse quantizer 5 for inversely quantizing the decoded information, a band limiter 7 for limiting the bandwidth, a quantizer 8 and a bit rate controller 9 for computationally determining the target bits for the coded images of each picture type by adaptively using a plurality of parameters operating as coefficients for the contents of the coded images of the picture type on the bais of the contents of the coded images of the picture type.