Abstract: A method of encoding data in the visible portion of a transmitted video signal without degrading display of the received video signal, and for decoding the data in the received video signal. Each group of data bits to be transmitted, referred to a data symbol, is associated with one of a number of longer predetermined sequences of chips. Each chip sequence is divided into a multiplicity of lines of chips, and each line of chips together with its inverse are embedded, in pairwise fashion, in respective pairs of line scans of the video signal prior to its transmission. Received pairs of line scans are operated upon to detect the lines of chips they represent, and each of the number of chip sequences is correlated with the detected line of chips to derive a correlation magnitude. The chip sequence with the largest correlation magnitude is selected as the chip sequence whose data symbol was transmitted.