A method, medium, and system encoding and/or decoding a moving picture. The moving picture encoding method may include selecting a prediction mode that is optimal for the macro blocks, which correspond to each other, of the color components of a current image based on the characteristics of a predetermined image, generating a predicted image for the current image according to the selected prediction mode, and encoding a moving picture using the predicted image. An optimal prediction mode can be adaptively applied to the macro blocks, which correspond to each other, of the color components, thereby increasing the moving picture's encoding and decoding efficiencies.