Horizontal-rate phase-change of TV pixel distribution among multiple recorder tracks for dropout concealment

A television signal processing apparatus for processing signals for recording time-sampled television signals on a multitrack recording medium, said processing apparatus comprising:

• controllable pixel distributing means coupled to the source of television signals and to the multitrack recording medium for distributing pixels among the tracks;
• pixel-rate related control signal generating means coupled to said controllable pixel distributing means and to a source of pixel-rate clock signals associated with said source of video signals for generating pixel-rate control signals for controlling said controllable pixel distributing means for distributing time-segmented pixels received in time sequence cyclically to each track in turn whereby a dropout in a single track having a duration of less than one line allows estimation of the value of the dropped-out pixels but a dropout in a single track having a duration greater than one horizontal line drops out sufficient data so estimation from adjacent pixels is no longer possible;
• and
• line-rate-related control signal generating means coupled to a source of line-rate signals associated with said source of television signals and with said controllable pixel distributing means for generating horizontal-line-rate control signals for controlling said controllable pixel distributing means for progressively changing the phase of said cyclical distribution of time-sequential pixels among said tracks at a rate which is the horizontal line rate divided by (N+1), where N represents the number of horizontal lines in the spatial pixel distribution of the raster which occur between identical line pixel patterns, whereby a dropout of one track for a time duration in excess of one horizontal line does not drop out spatially adjacent pixels whereby extimation of the value of the dropped-out pixels may be made from spatially adjacent pixels.