Method and apparatus for processing video pictures, in particular for large area flicker effect reduction

A method for processing video pictures, useful for large area flicker effect reduction, the video pictures comprising pixels having assigned one or more pixel values representing luminance of the pixels, the pixel values being digitally coded into digital code words, the digital code word determining the length of the time period during which the corresponding pixel of a display is activated, wherein to each bit of the digital code word a certain activation duration is assigned, defining a sub-field, the sum of the duration of the sub-fields according to a given code word determining the length of the time period during which the corresponding pixel is activated, said method comprising the steps of:

• organizing the sub-fields for a video frame period being characterized by the reciprocal value of the frame repetition rate in two consecutive groups, and positioning the two sub field groups in the frame period according to a time raster that corresponds to the doubling of the frame repetition rate, wherein in a sub-field coding process to a pixel value a code word is assigned which distributes the active sub-field periods equally over the two sub-field groups, in the sub-field coding process three components of a given pixel value are individually coded, the first component is coded with a number of lower significant sub-fields of both sub-field groups, the second component is coded with the higher significant sub-fields of the first group and the third component is coded with the higher significant sub-fields of the second group.