A video recording apparatus compresses video data so that a bit rate converges to a target bit rate while keeping a minimum image quality and records the compressed video data. The video recording apparatus (exemplified by a recording and reproducing apparatus (10)) comprises a compressing portion (exemplified by a transcoder (13)) which compresses the video data while executing a rate control including a change of a quantization step so that a bit rate in a predetermined period converges to a target bit rate; a recording portion which records the compressed data in a recording medium; and a total rate calculation portion that calculates a total bit rate of a result of compression of the video data by the compressing portion from the start of the compression to the present time. The compressing portion comprises a quantization step limiting portion which limits the changed quantization step to a predetermined upper limit lower than an upper limit changeable in the compressing portion, and a quantization step fixing portion which fixes the quantization step to the predetermined upper limit when the calculated total bit rate exceeds the target bit rate.