An encoding apparatus employing both a CPU and a chip or circuit dedicated to the encoding is disclosed. The encoding apparatus includes a hardware encoder and a software encoder. The hardware encoder is configured by hardware dedicated to the encoding and encodes a portion of AV data. The software encoder encodes another portion of the AV data in parallel to the encoding process of the hardware encoder by the use of a CPU. A position detector detects a switching position of an allocation destination in the AV data. A data allocator allocates sections of the AV data divided by the switching position to both encoders. A synthesizer arranges the encoded AV data in a predetermined sequence to synthesize a series of encoded AV data. An output unit outputs the series of encoded AV data.