In order to provide: a moving picture data playback apparatus and a moving picture data playback method, in which smooth high-speed playback is performed even when the moving picture playback speed is changed stepwise, and, in addition, the number of frames skipped is reduced in the high-speed playback; a moving picture data recording apparatus and a moving picture data recording method for recording the moving picture data played back by the moving picture data playback apparatus; and a recording medium having the moving picture data recorded thereon, the moving picture data recorded on the recording medium contains not only moving picture data for normal playback but also moving picture data for high-speed playback, which has a reduced number of pixels as compared with the moving picture data for normal playback. A picture forming circuit synthesizes intraframe-coded regions in a plurality of frames contained in the read moving picture data for high-speed playback. As a result, the number of frames processed per unit time doubles, thereby achieving high-speed playback which is twice as fast as the normal playback.