Abstract: A method and apparatus for detection and correction of errors in encoded digital data arranged in bytes is disclosed using a digital data processor for correcting errors in original digital data bytes organized into blocks each containing a plurality of bytes, each block containing information data bytes and parity data bytes. The original digital data bytes containing errors are processed a block at a time with a first decoder, thereby correcting errors in the original digital data bytes, to form first corrected digital data bytes. The first corrected digital data bytes include the same number of bytes as in the sets of the original data bytes. Second sets of digital data bytes from the first corrected digital data bytes are processed with a second decoder to form further corrected digital data bytes.