Patent ID: 6870572

Claim:
A method for picture-in-picture insertion, in which a sequence of decimated inset pictures is written to a memory device and is read out for insertion into a sequence of main pictures, the method comprising the steps of: writing inset pictures to the memory device in a circulating manner as fields under continuously incremented write addresses, the inset pictures being written to corresponding memory segments beginning at corresponding writing start addresses, storing the writing start address of each written-in field, each time the write address is incremented, by comparison of the respective instantaneous write address with a previously stored writing start address, an overtake signal, which indicates whether the respective writing start address is reached again and the memory segment corresponding to the respective writing start address is overwritten, by evaluation of the overtake signal, selecting for read out the memory segment corresponding to the last writing start address stored or the penultimate writing start address stored, and reading out the selected memory segment for insertion into the respective main picture with continuously incremented read addresses.