Fecha de publicación: 19/03/2008 Fuente: Wipo "digitalization" The present invention relates to an encoding device and method, a decoding device and method, and a transmission system, wherein encoding and decoding can be performed at higher speeds. A maximum significant digit calculating unit 63 calculates the maximum significant digits of predetermined w quantized coefficients. A VLC encoding unit 64 outputs code indicating a maximum significant digit, based on the calculation results. A significant digit extracting unit 65 extracts the significant digits of each of w quantized coefficients based on the maximum significant digit. A VLC encoding unit 66 outputs code indicating the absolute values of the w quantized coefficients, based on the extracted significant digits. A sign extracting unit 67 extracts signs from the w quantized coefficients, indicating whether each quantized coefficient is positive or negative. A VLC encoding unit 68 outputs code indicating w signs.