The present invention relates to a recording apparatus and method, a reproducing apparatus and method, a recording medium, and a program for reproducing a video stream in a simpler method. A VOBU of an AV stream recorded on a recording medium includes, from the beginning thereof, navigation information, and then provider definition information followed by V_PCK, A_PCK, and S_PCK. The provider definition information contains closed GOP flag information, broken link flag, and I picture reproduction order information, the number of real frames, the number of reproduction frames, and progressive frame flag, related to the video data contained in the VOBU. A reproducing apparatus performs a reproduction process based on the provider definition information. The present invention is applicable to a reproducing apparatus of DVD.