The present invention is to provide a digital video-audio signal recording and reproducing apparatus that allows the number of channels of audio data and the data width per sample to be changed corresponding to user's settings. 24-bit/sample audio data that is input as serial data to Ch 1 of the digital video-audio signal recording and reproducing apparatus is separated into high order 16 bits and low order eight bits. The high order 16 bits are recorded in a region of Ch 1 of a record medium. The low order eight bits are stored to a region of low order eight bits of Ch 3 paired with Ch 1 of the record medium. Mode information that represents that 24-bit data is separated into paired channels is added to record data each edit unit of video data. When dat is reproduced, data of paired channels is combined corresponding to the mode information so as to restore 24-bit data. Since the 24-bit data is treated as 16-bit data, the record format of 16-bit data can be used for the 24-bit data.