Video memory

Digital video replay apparatus comprising:

• means for replaying video data from a storage medium, said video data comprising a plurality of input video data blocks, each of said input video data blocks comprising a plurality of pixel data words and at least one ancillary data word associated with the input video data block for identifying at least one video field represented by said plurality of pixel data words;
• a video store for storing said input video data blocks;
• a recirculating output buffer having a storage capacity equal to the number of ancillary data words associated with each said input video data block times the number of said input video data blocks stored in said video store, said recirculating output buffer for storing data words, reading out the stored data words and re-storing the read out data words;
• means for reading the ancillary data words associated with a predetermined sequence of said input video data blocks from said video store into said recirculating output buffer in response to a read control signal;
• and
• serial reading means for reading successive output video data blocks from said video store in response to said read control signal, each output video data block comprising pixel data words from said predetermined sequence of said input video data blocks, said serial reading means and said recirculating output buffer being operable in response to said read control signal to output concurrently each pixel data word in each output video data block with said at least one ancillary data word associated with said input video data block of the pixel data word being output.

A method of reading video data stored in a video store, said stored video data comprising a plurality of input video data blocks, each of said input video data blocks comprising a plurality of pixel data words and at least one ancillary data word associated with the input video data block for identifying at least one video field represented by said plurality of pixel data words, said method comprising the steps of:

• reading the ancillary data words associated with a predetermined sequence of said input video data blocks from said video store into a recirculating output buffer having a storage capacity equal to the number of ancillary data words associated with each said input video data block times the number of said input video data blocks stored in said video store;
• reading the stored ancillary data words from said recirculating output buffer in response to a control signal;
• re-reading the read out ancillary data words into said recirculating output buffer;
• and
• serially reading pixel data words from said predetermined sequence of said input video data blocks in response to said control signal to form successive output video data blocks in synchronism with the reading of the stored at least one ancillary data word associated with the input video data block of the pixel data word being serially read.