Abstract: With a digital audio or video recorder/playback decoder, an erasure flag signals (1) that an error(s) was not detected in a video signal or that an error(s) was detected and was corrected or (2) that an error(s) was detected and was not corrected. Decoders either (1) may not detect certain errors, called "unflagged errors," or (2) may detect certain errors but not correct those errors, called "flagged errors." Here, video signal data, which may have flagged or unflagged errors, is concealed. The structure detects an unflagged error in the digital data and modifies the concealment flag of that digital data. The structure also detects a first-good sample of digital data; sets the erasure flag of the first-good sample to indicate that it is to be treated as having a detected error; and extends the first-good sample to an ECC system and to a miscorrection detector.