A recording apparatus and a recording method that can record both moving picture data and still picture data in a form reproducible by various reproducing apparatus. The moving picture data is compressed by an MPEG system by an MPEG encoder, formed into data for recording corresponding to a predetermined recording format by a format forming unit, and then recorded on a DVD. The still picture data is compressed by a JPEG system by a JPEG encoder, and recorded on the DVD separately from the moving picture data. In predetermined timing, the still picture data compressed by the JPEG system and recorded on the DVD is read, the still picture data is converted into I-pictures of the MPEG system by a format converting unit, and then the I-pictures of the MPEG system are recorded onto the DVD in the predetermined format via the format forming unit.