Abstract: The present invention is to provide an image change detecting apparatus capable of detecting only a necessary scene change in encoding by the MPEG method accurately and certainly. The apparatus comprises an in-frame distribution value detecting part for detecting the in-frame distribution value in each frame image, a predicted error absolute value sum detecting part for detecting the predicted error absolute value sum in each frame image, and a host CPU for detecting whether or not a scene change occurs based on the change of the in-frame distribution values in each frame image of two consecutive frame images and the change of the predicted error absolute value sums at the boundary timing of the two frame images.