Method and apparatus for handling data in television signals

Claim 1

Apparatus for handling data in a television signal of the MAC packet type which television signal is in time multiplexed component form the majority of the line periods of a television frame of which contain a digital data burst component and a vision component, the data burst component comprising first and second adjacent sub-components with said first and said second sub-components in each frame forming the data in respective first and second subframes which data in each subframe is organized as a packet of multiplexed data, characterized in that said apparatus comprises means for extracting said data burst from said television signal when received, means for forming the data in the extracted data bursts into individual packets associated with the first or the second subframe comprising a sound/data FIFO in which the data rate is reduced as compared with that in the received signal and a de-interleaving random access memory, and means for applying correspondingly positioned packets from the respective subframes substantially simultaneously to a common data line with the bits from a packet of the first subframe alternating with the bits from the packet of the second subframe.