Abstract: Concealing errors in a digital television signal, which has a plurality of component sample values corresponding respectively to sample positions along a horizontal scan line of a television picture made up of a plurality of scan lines, in respect of each sample value which is in error, by calculating a first concealment accuracy by determining the difference between two immediately adjacent sample values both in the scan line immediately preceding or following the scan line which the error sample is in, and one of which sample values is immediately adjacent to the error sample, calculating a second concealment accuracy by determining the difference between two immediately adjacent sample values both in the vertical line immediately preceding or following the vertical line which the error sample is in, and one of which sample values is immediately adjacent to the error sample, selecting from the available concealment accuracies a preferred direction of the television picture for concealing the error sample, c

Abstract: A method of recording a digital audio signal in association with a digital video signal which is to be recorded in oblique tracks on a magnetic tape using a rotary head the rotational frequency of which is locked to the digital video signal, comprises the steps of assembling incoming audio data words which correspond to successive samples of an audio signal into groups nominally of N audio data words where N is the number of audio samples corresponding to the digital video signal to be recorded in one oblique track, allowing the number of audio data words in each group to vary preferably over the range N-1 to N+1 to maintain synchronism of the audio signal with the rotational frequency of the rotary head, coding the audio data words into error-correcting blocks for recording by the rotary head, and associating with each error-correcting block a status code for use on reproduction and which indicates whether the number of audio data words in the corresponding group is N-1, or N+1.

Abstract: Apparatus for concealing errors in a digital television signal comprises delay elements for deriving a current sample value and a first group of the sample values spatially closest to the current sample value in the same frame of the television signal and delay elements for deriving from the preceding frame of the television signal a delayed sample value corresponding in position to the current sample value and a second group of sample values respectively corresponding in position to the sample values. The current sample value and the delayed sample value are checked for error, and subtractors check pairs of sample values corresponding in position in the current and preceding frames of the television signal for error, derive a measure of the difference in the levels of the sample values in each pair, and combine the results of these checks to provide an output signal which is a measure of the number of the errors and of the sum of the differences.