Provided is an H.264 Context Adaptive Variable Length Coding (CAVLC) decoding method based on an Application-Specific Instruction-set Processor (ASIP). The H.264 CAVLC decoding method includes determining a plurality of comparison bit strings on the basis of a table of a decoding coefficient, storing lengths of the comparison bit strings in a first register, storing code values of the comparison bit strings in a second register, comparing an input bit stream with the comparison bit strings based on the lengths and code values of the comparison bit strings, and determining value of the decoding coefficient according to a result of comparison between the input bit stream and the comparison bit strings. The method extracts a decoding coefficient using a register in an ASIP without accessing a memory and prevents a reduction in speed caused by memory access, thereby increasing the decoding speed of an H.264 decoder.