KR20050021355A - Method and apparatus for conversion of video formats to 120 hz 4 to 1 interlaced formats - Google Patents

Abstract

According to the present invention, a method of converting video data of a first video format into a second interlaced video format includes a number of frames of the first video format to be mapped to a frame of the second video format having four fields. Determining a number of lines from each of the number of frames of the first video format to be mapped to each of the four fields of the frame of the second video format, and the number of frames of the first video format Selecting a number of the determined line from each of the; determining a sequence for mapping the number of the selected line to the field of a frame of the second video format; The second video from each of the numbers according to the determined sequence And a step of mapping to the four fields of the frame of the matt.

Description

TECHNICAL AND APPARATUS FOR CONVERSION OF VIDEO FORMATS TO 120 HZ 4 TO 1 INTERLACED FORMATS}

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to the field of video display formats and display devices, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus for converting various formats into a 120 Hz 4: 1 interlaced video format.

With the introduction of digital television and high resolution video, consumer display products are being introduced to support additional video formats while being compatible with legacy video formats. The standard for digital television format is covered by the Advanced Television Selection Committee (ASTC). ASTC video standards include 1080 line / frame interlaced 60 Hz format (1080I @ 120Hz), 720 line / frame progressive format 60 Hz (720P @) 60Hz and 1080 line / frame progressive 30 Hz format (1080P @ 30Hz) It includes. The ASTC video standard also includes other formats such as 525I @ 60Hz and 525P @ 60Hz. High line count indicates high display resolution. Frequency specification is the frame display rate or number of frames displayed within one second. High frequency displays have less large area flicker.

Examples of legacy formats include the National Television Selection Committee (NTSC) 525 line interlaced 60 Hz (525I @ 60Hz) format and the phase alternating lines (PAL) 625 line interlaced 50 Hz (625I @ 50Hz) format. In NTSC and PAL interlaced formats, there are two fields per frame, each field containing half of the number of lines per frame, one field containing lines of odd numbers, and the other field containing lines of even numbers. While the resolution of NTSC and PAL is low, display equipment is relatively inexpensive because, on the one hand, low-frequency equipment is less expensive to build and, on the other hand, due to the maturity of the video display industry.

During the display of interlaced video, the raster of the video display unit displays all odd numbered lines in one vertical sweep of the screen and the raster then displays all even numbered lines in the next sweep. Due to the tendency of averaging or blending the continuous display device (i.e. the ability to hold the image for a short time before fading) and the human eye's eye, the viewer sees the complete display but is carried by the display signal The amount of information collected and the number of lines to be displayed per sweep are halved. In the interlace mode, the refresh frequency of the screen is the same as the frame display frequency. In displaying progressive mode video, the raster of the video display unit sequentially displays each line of the frame. In progressive mode, the refresh frequency of the screen is the same as the frame display frequency.

Conversion between interlaced and progressive modes, between different numbers of scan lines and between different scan frequencies requires complex and expensive video signal conversion equipment.

1 to 3 are flow charts illustrating a method for converting various formats to a 120 Hz 4: 1 interlaced format in accordance with the present invention.

4 shows the mapping of a line of a first original video format to a line of a new format according to the invention.

5 shows the mapping of a line of a second original video format to a line of a new format according to the invention.

6 illustrates mapping a line of a third original video format to a line of a new format according to the present invention.

7 is a schematic diagram of a video receiver according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

8 is a schematic diagram of a video receiver according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

A first aspect of the present invention provides a method of converting video data of a first video format into a second interlaced video format, comprising: a frame of a first video format to be mapped to a frame of a second video format having four fields. Determining the number of lines, determining the number of lines to be mapped from each frame of the first video format to four fields of each frame of the second video format, and determining the number of lines determined from each frame of the first video format. Selecting a sequence, determining a sequence for mapping the selected line to a field of a frame of the second video format, and selecting a line from each frame of the first video format according to the determined sequence. A video data conversion method comprising mapping to four fields.

A second aspect of the present invention provides a method for converting video data of a first interlaced video format into video data of a second interlaced video format, the method comprising alternating from a first field of a frame of the first interlaced video format. Selecting a first set of lines comprising a line, selecting a second set of lines comprising alternating lines not selected as a first set of lines from a first field of a frame of a first interlaced video format, and Selecting a third set of lines comprising alternating lines from a second field of a frame of one interlaced video format; and a alternating line not selected as a third set of lines from a second field of a frame of a first interlaced video format. Selecting a fourth set of lines, wherein each line set comprises four of a second interlaced video format. A video data conversion method comprising the step of mapping to the different fields in the field.

A third aspect of the present invention is a method of converting video data of a first progressive video format into video data of a second interlaced video format, the number of frames of the first video format to be mapped to a frame of a new video format. Is equal to the product of the number of fields in the second video format divided by the display frequency of the first video format divided by the display frequency of the second video format, and the fields of the frames of the second video format from each frame of the first video format. The number of lines mapped to is the number of lines in the frame of the first video format divided by the number of frames of the first video format mapped to the frame of the new video format, one every four from one of the frames of the first video format. Selecting a first set of lines comprising alternate fourth lines, the first video port; Selecting a second line set comprising one line every four that is not selected as one of the first line sets from one of the frames of frames; and from one of the frames of the first video format to the first or second line set. Selecting a fourth set of lines comprising one line every four not selected, and every four not selected as the first, second, or third set of lines from one of the frames of the first video format Selecting a fourth set of lines comprising one line, and mapping each set of lines to a different field of four fields of a second video format.

A fourth aspect of the present invention is an apparatus for converting video signal data of a first video format into video signal data of a second video format, the digital video being received by receiving a video signal of a different video type and a video signal of a first video format. One or more video inputs, each configured to output a signal, a storage device for receiving and storing a digital video signal, and reading a stored digital signal of the stored video signal or receiving a digital signal from the one or more inputs to format the digital signal. A scan controller configured to convert from a video format to a second video format comprising four interlaced fields and having a field display frequency of 120 Hz, and to receive a digital video signal in a second video format and output a video signal in a second video format. Each configured A video signal data conversion device including one or more outputs.

Features of the invention are set forth in the appended claims. However, the present invention itself will be best understood with reference to the following detailed description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

The frame of video is defined as a collection of lines that form one entire area of one complete picture when the raster is displayed. The term raster is defined somewhat indirectly as a rectangular pattern of lines on a video display, from which the term raster scan is derived. The field is defined as a subset of the lines of the frame. Fields are used in an interlaced video format, where lines of each field are raster displayed in an alternating sequence. Progressive video formats do not have fields. The term original video format refers to the video format to be converted to the new 120 Hz 4: 1 interlaced video format according to the present invention. The original video format may be any of the standard formats described above, or may be a variable frame display frequency and other video formats of lines per frame. The term video format may be abbreviated to a format.

1 to 3 are flow charts illustrating a method for converting various video formats to the new 120 Hz 4: 1 interlaced format according to the present invention. The new 120 Hz 4: 1 interlace format has four fields per frame, each field having one quarter of a line. The new 120 Hz 4: 1 interlaced video format is shown below as I / 4 @ 120 Hz. I / 4 represents four interlaced fields. 120 Hz is the field display frequency. The number before I / 4 represents the number of lines per frame. Thus, 1080I / 4 @ 120Hz (this is used as an example of FIGS. 1-6) represents 1080 lines per frame (270 lines per field). The 1080I / 4 @ 120Hz format is shown in FIG. In the example of FIG. 4, each field has 270 lines (i.e., the lines divided by 4 lines of 1080 lines), each field comprising a set of different lines consisting of one for every four lines of the frame. The four fields are rasters displayed in order from field 1 to field 4. The field display frequency of 1080I / 4 @ 120Hz is 120 Hz. The refresh rate in I / 4 @ 120Hz format is 30 Hz (ie, display frequency divided by the number of fields).

In step 100, the type of video input is selected. Video receivers (see FIGS. 7 and 8) as described below may have one or more video input types. This type includes analog video, digital video and compressed digital video. The present invention works on uncompressed digital video, so in step 105 it is determined whether the input is analog video. If the input is analog video, then analog video is converted to digital video in step 110 and the method proceeds to step 115. In step 105, if the input is not analog video, no conversion is required, and the method proceeds directly to step 115. In step 115, a determination is made whether the digital video is compressed digital video. In step 115, if the input is compressed, then in step 120, the compressed digital video is decoded and the method proceeds to step 125. If in step 115 the digital video is not compressed, then no decoding is required and the method proceeds directly to step 125. In step 125, the format of the digital video is determined (progressive or interlaced and the number of lines per field or frame). In step 130, a determination is made whether the digital video format is progressive or interlaced. If the digital video format is progressive, the method proceeds to step 135. If the digital video format is interlaced, the method proceeds to step 140.

Step 135 includes two options, only one is used at a time. Option I of step 135 allows each of the four fields in I / 4 @ 120Hz to include 270 lines. If the number of lines in the frame of the original video format is not an integer multiple of 270, the lines per frame of the original video format are reduced to the highest even multiple of 270, which is less than the number of lines per original frame. For example, if the original video format has 720 lines per frame, the original video is reduced to 540 lines (2 × 270) per frame. The I / 4 @ 120Hz format includes a frame of 540 lines each consisting of four fields of 135 lines. If the number of lines per frame of digital video is already an even integer multiple of 270, then the operation of option I is not necessary. Option II of step 135 sets the number of lines in each frame of the I / 4 @ 120Hz interlace format to the number of lines in the frame of the original video format. The number of lines per field at I / 4 @ 120Hz is the number of lines in the frame of the original video format divided by four. This method is particularly suitable for the computer graphics mode as described below.

In step 140, the digital video is stored in a storage medium, and in step 145, another determination is made based on the format of the digital video. If the digital video format is interlaced, the method proceeds to step 150 of FIG. If the digital video format is progressive, the method proceeds to step 270 of FIG.

In FIG. 2 (for processing interlaced video), in step 150 a computational constant M is set to the number of lines per frame of the I / 4 @ 120 Hz output. This value was calculated in step 135 of FIG. In the example of FIG. 4, M is 1080 (MI / 4 @ 120Hz = 1080 @ 120Hz).

In step 155, the line permutation used to reorder the lines from the original interlace format to the I / 4 @ 120Hz format is determined. One line permutation is illustrated in FIG. 4 and discussed further below with reference to FIG. 4. Since there are four fields here in the I / 4 @ 120Hz format, there are 24 possible permutations (4 factorials) in the order in which the settings of the line can be distributed into four fields. A fixed predetermined permutation may be used, or the permutation may change dynamically from frame to frame based on image characteristics in the video frame. For example, if there is scrolling text, the best of 24 line set permutations for use in a given frame can be determined from the relative size of the text characters and the speed of scrolling.

In step 160, the first or next video frame of the original video format is read from memory, and all lines of the frame are stored in a buffer. In step 165, the I / 4 @ 120Hz field display timing is set or reset for the first or next video frame.

In step 170, the raster of the new video format field 1 is delayed until an appropriate time in accordance with the display timing set in step 165. In step 175, the counter N is set to one. In step 180, line N is read from the buffer and displayed. In step 185, the value of N is checked to see if the last line of field 1 has been read and displayed (i.e., N> M). If the last line of field 1 has not been read out and displayed, then in step 190 N increases by 4 and the method returns to step 180. If the last line of field 1 has been read and displayed, the method proceeds to step 195.

Steps 195, 200, 205, 210, and 215 are similar to steps 170, 175, 180, 185, and 190, respectively, except that N is set to 3 in step 200, and proceeds to step 220 after the field 2 display is complete. Do.

Steps 220, 225, 230, 235 and 240 except N is set to 2 in step 225, and in step 230 the second field of the original video format is read and displayed and proceeds to step 245 after the field 3 display is complete. Are similar to steps 170, 175, 180, 185 and 190, respectively.

Steps 245, 250, 255, 260, and 265 are set to N at 4 in step 250, except that the display returns to step 155 to repeat this method for the next video frame after display of field 4 is complete. Similar to 220, 225, 230, 235 and 240, respectively.

In steps 175, 200, 225 and 250, the sequence of values for which N is set (this value is not repeated) produces one of 24 possible line set permutations. The line set permutations shown in FIGS. 2 and 4 are 1-3-2-4. The actual values quoted are examples and any of 24 may be used and the permutations used may vary for each frame.

Referring to FIG. 3 (for progressive video processing), at step 270, the calculation constant M is set to the number of lines per frame of the I / 4 @ 120 Hz output. This value was calculated in step 135 of FIG. In addition, the frequency of the original video format is multiplied by 4 (the number of new video format fields) and divided by 120 (the frequency of the new video format) to be used to assemble one frame of the I / 4 @ 120Hz video format from the original video format. The number F of frames to be determined is determined. If the number F of frames is one, each of the calculation constants A, B, C and D is set to one. If the number F of frames is two, A and B are set to one, and C and D are set to two. If the number of frames is four, A is set to one, B is set to two, C is set to three, and D is set to four. See Figures 5 and 6 and related discussions below, for example F = 2 and F = 4.

In step 275, the line permutation used to reorder from the original interlace format to the I / 4 @ 120Hz format is determined. One line permutation is shown in FIG. 5, described below with reference to FIG. 5. Since there are four fields in the I / 4 @ 120Hz format, the line set has 24 possible permutations (4 factorials) in an order that can be spread over four fields. A fixed predetermined permutation may be used, or the permutation may change dynamically from frame to frame based on image characteristics in the video frame. For example, if there is scrolling text, the best of 24 line set permutations for use in a given frame can be determined from the relative size of the text characters and the speed of scrolling.

In step 280, all lines of the first (next) F video frame of the original video format are read from memory and stored in a buffer. The number F of frames was calculated in step 270 described above. In step 285, the I / 4 @ 120Hz field display timing is set or reset for the first or next video frame.

In step 290, the raster of field 1 is delayed until an appropriate time in accordance with the display timing set in step 285. In step 295, the counter N is set to one. In step 300, line N from frame A is read from the buffer and displayed. At step 305, the value of N is checked to see if the last line of the field has been read and displayed (i.e., N = M- (4-N)). If the last line of the first new video format field has not been read and displayed, then in step 305 N increases by 4 and the method returns to step 300. If the last line has been read and displayed in step 305, the method proceeds to step 315.

Steps 315, 320, 325, 330, and 335 are steps 290, 295, 300, 305, and 310, except that N is set to 3 in step 320, and the method proceeds to step 340 after the field 2 display is complete. Similar to

Steps 340, 345, 350, 355 and 360 indicate that the method proceeds to step 345 after N is set to 2 in step 345, in step 230 the second field of the original video format is read and displayed and the field 3 display is complete. Except for the points, they are similar to steps 290, 295, 300, 305, and 310, respectively.

Steps 365, 370, 375, 380, and 385, except that N is set to 4 in step 370, and returns to step 275 to repeat this method for the next video frame after display of field 4 is complete. Similar to 290, 295, 300, 305 and 310, respectively.

If F is 2, only one line from one of the two first video format frames is sent to one new video format frame; if F is 4, only one per four lines from the four first video format frames Is transmitted in a new video format frame of (see FIGS. 5 and 6).

In steps 295, 320, 345 and 370, the sequence of values for which N is set (this value is not repeated) produces one of 24 possible line set permutations. The line set permutations shown in FIGS. 3 and 5 and 6 are 1-3-2-4. The actual values quoted are examples and any of 24 may be used and the permutations used may vary for each frame.

As an alternative to the second embodiment, not all lines of every frame of the original video format are stored in the buffer, only those lines to be displayed in the new video format. The selection procedure for the line for storing in the buffer is the same as the procedure used to select which line to be displayed with reference to FIG. 3 above. The buffer is then the first 1/4 of the line that will be the first new field of the new video format, the second 1/4 of the line that will be the second new field of the new video format, the third new of the new video format The third quarter of the line to be the field, the fourth quarter of the line to be the fourth new field of the new video format, is read in order.

4 illustrates an example of mapping a line of a first original video format to a line of a new format according to the present invention. Figure 4 shows the conversion from the 1080I / 4 @ 60Hz video format to the 1080I / 4 @ 120Hz video format according to the present invention, where 1080 is the number of lines per frame, I represents two interlaced fields, and I / 4 represents four interlaced fields. The original video frame 390 includes a first field 395 containing 540 odd lines of the original video frame and a second field 400 comprising 540 even lines of the original video frame. The new video frame 405 includes a first field 410 containing half of the 540 odd lines of the original video field 395 and a second half containing the other half of the 540 even lines of the original video field 395. A third field 420 comprising a field 415, half of the 540 odd lines of the original video field 400, and a fourth field comprising the other half of the 540 even lines of the original video field 400. 425. The line number in the first field 395 of the original video frame 390 corresponds to the same line number mapped to the first and second fields 410, 415 of the new video frame 405. The line number in the second field 400 of the original video frame 390 corresponds to the same line number mapped to the third and fourth fields 420, 425 of the new video frame 405. The mapping of the line set to fields 410, 415, 420, and 425 of the new frame 405 represents only one permutation of the 24 possible sets of lines. For example, fields 420 and 425 remain unchanged, mapping the line set 1, 5, 9, 13... 1077 of the current field 410 to field 415 and the current field 415. Becomes a second permutation out of the 24 permutations that are possible to map lines 3, 7, 11, 15... 1079 to field 410.

Fig. 5 shows the conversion from the 1080P @ 60Hz video format to the 1080I / 4 @ 120Hz video format according to the present invention. The first original video frame 435 includes 1080 lines, and the second original video frame 440 includes 1080 lines. The new video frame 445 includes a first field 450 including the first quarter line of the 1080 lines of the first original video frame 435, and a 1080 line of the first original video frame 435. A second field 455 comprising a second quarter line, a third field 460 comprising a third quarter line of 1080 lines of a second original video frame 440, and a second first And a fourth field 465 that includes a fourth quarter of the 1080 lines of video frame 440. The line number in the first original video frame 435 corresponds to the same line number mapped to the first and second fields 450, 455 of the new video frame 445. The line number in the second original video frame 440 corresponds to the same line number mapped to the fields 460 and 465 of the new video frame 445. The mapping of lines to fields 450, 455, 460, 465 of the new video frame 465 represents only one permutation of the permutations of the group of 24 possible sets of lines. For example, mapping the line sets 1, 5, 9, 11... 1077 of the current field 450 to field 455 to field 455 without changing fields 460, 465. And mapping the current set of lines 3, 7, 11, 15... 1079 of field 455 to field 450 becomes the second of 24 possible permutations.

6 shows an example of mapping a line of a third original video format to a line of a new format according to the present invention. Figure 6 illustrates the conversion from the 1080P @ 120Hz video format to the 1080I / 4 @ 120Hz video format according to the present invention. The first initial video frame 475 includes 1080 lines, the second initial video frame 480 includes 1080 lines, the third initial video frame 485 includes 1080 lines, and the fourth Initial video frame 490 includes 1080 lines. The new video frame 495 includes a first field comprising a quarter line of 1080 lines of the first original video frame 475 and a quarter line of 1080 lines of a second original video frame 480. A third field 510 including a second field 505, a quarter line of 1080 lines of a third initial video frame 485, and 1080 lines of a fourth initial video field 490. A fourth field 515 comprising a quarter line. The line number in the first original video frame 475 corresponds to the same line number mapped into the first field 500 of the new video frame 495. The line number in the second original video frame 480 corresponds to the same line number mapped to the second field 505 of the new video frame 495. The line number in the third original video frame 485 corresponds to the same line number mapped to the third field 510 of the new video frame 495. The line number in the fourth original video frame 490 corresponds to the same line number mapped to the fourth field 515 of the new video frame 495. The set of line numbers mapped to each field of the new frame 495 is different from each other, and each set is one of four possible line numbers that takes every four line numbers without repetition. The mapping of lines to fields 500, 505, 510, 515 of new video frame 495 represents only one permutation of the 24 possible sets of lines. For example, mapping the current lines 1, 5, 9, 13,... 1077 of field 500 to field 505 and fields 505 without changing fields 510, 515. The mapping of the current lines 3, 7, 11, 15... 1079 to field 500 becomes the second of 24 possible permutations.

7 is a schematic diagram of a video receiver according to a first embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 7, the video receiver 600 receives an analog video signal 610 and converts an analog video signal into a digital video signal 615, and a digital video signal 625. A digital input unit 620 that receives and outputs a digital video signal 615 and a video decompressor 630 that receives the compressed digital video signal 635 and decompresses the compressed video signal into a digital video signal 615. ).

Video receiver 600 also stores an optional downscale device 635 that fixes the number of lines in a video frame to a fixed value, and stores digital video data contained within digital video signal 615. Apparatus 640 and 120 Hz four-field scan controller 645. Scan controller 645 includes a buffer 650 that stores one or more frames of digital video data. The scan controller 645 may receive digital video data from the A / D converter 605, the digital video input 620, the video decompressor 635, the downscale device 635, or the storage device 640. . The scan controller 645 converts the video data received from the original format into the I / 4 @ 120Hz format described above with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3. The scan controller 645 outputs the digital video signal 655 in the I / 4 @ 120Hz video format.

The video receiver 600 receives the digital video signal 655 from the scan controller 645 and converts the digital signal 655 into an analog signal 665 usable by the analog video display device 660. And a digital video output unit 670 that receives the digital video signal 655 and outputs a digital video signal 675 usable by the digital video display device.

8 is a schematic diagram of a video receiver according to a second embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 8, video receiver 600A is similar to video receiver 600 shown in FIG. 7 described above except that video receiver 600A includes an image analysis processor 680. The image analysis processor analyzes the stream of video frames and appropriately determines the permutations used by the scan controller 645 as described above with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3. The image processor 680 may receive the digital data signal 615 from the downscale device 635 and the storage device 640. Another difference between the receiver and receiver 600A in FIG. 7 is the digital video signal 615 from the A / D converter 605, the digital input 620, and the video decompressor 630 through the image analysis processor 680. Is the direct root.

The present invention is scalable to the original video format having a frequency higher than 120 Hz. For example, given the initial format of 1080P @ 240Hz, the method of the present invention provides two 1080I / 4 @ 120Hz frames sequentially displayed with eight 1080P @ 240Hz format frames (but each of them is interlaced). In fact, it creates a hybrid interlaced / progressive video format. Every eight lines of each 1080P240Hz frame will be used in the new hybrid format.

The present invention can be employed in computer graphics display modes such as video graphics array (VGA), super video graphic array (SVGA) and extended video graphic array (XGA) formats by treating horizontal rows of pixels as lines in a frame. Thus, VGA is treated as having 200 or 480 lines per frame, XGA is treated as having 480 or 768 lines per frame, and SVGA is treated as having 600 or 1200 lines per frame. VGA, XGA, and SVGA are treated as progressive video formats. In all cases the number of "lines" is an even multiple of four, so the present invention is indeed well suited for a computer graphics display mode.

The invention is also applicable to pixel type display devices such as cathode ray tube (CRT) displays, other electron beam based displays, liquid crystal displays (LCDs), plasma displays and light emitting diode (LED) displays.

The embodiments of the present invention have been described above for the understanding of the present invention. The present invention is not limited to the specific embodiments disclosed herein, and various changes, rearrangements, and substitutions will be apparent to those skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the present invention. For example, the even number of the frame of the original progressive video format is mapped to four fields of the I / 4 @ 120Hz format, but it is also possible to map the cardinal number of the frame using the other algorithm described above. Accordingly, the appended claims cover all such variations and modifications as fall within the spirit and scope of the invention.

Claims (20)

A method for converting video data of a first video format into a second interlaced video format, the method comprising: Determining a number of frames of the first video format to map to frames of the second video format having four fields; Determining a number of lines to be mapped from each frame of the first video format to each of the four fields of the frame of the second video format; Selecting the determined number of lines from each frame of the first video format; Determining a sequence for mapping the selected line to the field of the frame of the second video format; Mapping the selected line from each frame of the first video format to the four fields of a frame of the second video format according to the determined sequence. How to convert video data. The method of claim 1, Determining the number of frames of the first video format to map to the frames of the second video format is based on the number of the fields of the second video format and the frame display frequencies of the first and second video formats. doing How to convert video data. The method of claim 1, Determining the number of lines to be mapped from each frame of the first video format to the field of the frame of the second video format depends on the frame display frequency of the second video format and the first and second video formats. Based How to convert video data. The method of claim 1, Determining a sequence for mapping the selected number of lines to the field of a frame of the second video format includes selecting one of a set of permutations of the sequence, wherein the number of permutations is in the second video format. Based on the number of fields in the frame of How to convert video data. The method of claim 1, The frame display frequency of the second video format is 120 Hz How to convert video data. A method for converting video data in a first interlaced video format into video data in a second interlaced video format, the method comprising: Selecting a first set of lines comprising alternate lines from a first field of a frame of the first interlaced video format; Selecting a second set of lines comprising an alternating line not selected as said first set of lines from said first field of said frame of said first interlaced video format; Selecting a third set of lines comprising alternating lines from a second field of a frame of the first interlaced video format; Selecting a fourth set of lines comprising alternating lines not selected as a third set of lines from the second field of the frame of the first interlaced video format; Mapping each set of lines to a different field of four fields of the second interlaced video format. How to convert video data. The method of claim 6, Based on one permutation of the permutation set of number of line sets, determining which line set to map to which field of the frame of the second interlaced video format. How to convert video data. The method of claim 7, wherein Selecting the one permutation of the permutation set based on the image characteristic of the frame of the first video format. How to convert video data. The method of claim 6, Reducing the number of lines in the frame of the first interlaced video format to a new number of lines that is the most significant multiple of the number of lines in the frame of the second interlaced video format that is less than or equal to the number of lines in the frame of the first interlaced video format. Including more steps How to convert video data. The method of claim 6, The frequency of the second interlaced video format is 120 Hz How to convert video data. A method for converting video data in a first progressive video format into video data in a second interlaced video format, the method comprising: The number of frames of the first video format to be mapped to the frames of the new video format is the number of fields in the second video format divided by the display frequency of the first video format by the display frequency of the second video format. Is equal to the product of The number of lines mapped from each frame of the first video format to a field of a frame of the second video format is equal to the number of lines in the frame of the first video format mapped to the frame of the new video format. The number divided by the number of frames Selecting a first set of lines comprising an alternate fourth line every four from one of the frames of the first video format; Selecting a second set of lines comprising one line every four not selected as a first set of lines from one of the frames of the first video format; Selecting a fourth set of lines comprising one line every four not selected as a first or second set of lines from one of the frames of the first video format; Selecting a fourth set of lines comprising one line every four not selected as the first, second or third set of lines from one of the frames of the first video format; Mapping each set of lines to a different field of the four fields of the second video format. How to convert video data. The method of claim 11, Based on one permutation of the permutation sets of the line set, determining which line set to map to which field of the frame of the second video format; How to convert video data. The method of claim 12, Selecting the one permutation of the permutation set based on the image characteristic of the frame of the first video format. How to convert video data. The method of claim 11, Reducing the number of lines in each frame of the first video format to a number that is the most significant multiple of the number of lines in each frame of the second video format that is less than or equal to the number of lines in each frame of the first video format. Containing more How to convert video data. The method of claim 11, The frequency of the second video format is 120 Hz How to convert video data. An apparatus for converting video signal data of a first video format into video signal data of a second video format, One or more video inputs, each configured to receive a video signal of a different video type and a video signal of the first video format and output a digital video signal; A storage device for receiving and storing the digital video signal; Reading the stored digital signal of the stored video signal or receiving the digital signal from the one or more inputs so that the format of the digital signal comprises four interlaced fields from the first video format and has a field display frequency of 120 Hz; A scan controller configured to convert to a two video format, One or more outputs, each configured to receive the digital video signal in the second video format and output the video signal in the second video format. Video signal data conversion device. The method of claim 16, Downscale apparatus configured to reduce the number of lines in the frame of the first video format to a new number of lines, which is the most significant multiple of the number of lines in the frame of the second video format that is less than or equal to the number of lines in the frame of the first video format. More containing Video signal data conversion device. The method of claim 16, Select a line set from a frame of the digital video signal of the first video format to map to the field of a frame of the second video format based on video content of the frame of the digital video signal of the first video format. Further comprising a configured image analysis processor Video signal data conversion device. The method of claim 16, The scan controller further includes a buffer that buffers one or more frames of the digital video signal in the first video format when the frame is read from the storage device. Video signal data conversion device. The method of claim 16, The video type is selected from the group consisting of an analog video signal, a digital video signal and a compressed video signal. Video signal data conversion device.