Patent ID: 7907210

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving, in a de-interlacing processor, a sequence of interlaced video signal fields, said sequence including a first field, a second field which immediately follows the first field in said sequence, and a third field which immediately follows the second field in said sequence; applying, in the de-interlacing processor, an initial de-interlacing procedure to said first field, second and third fields to generate initial de-interlaced pixel data for said first, second and third fields, said initial de-interlacing not including motion compensation; performing, in the de-interlacing processor, motion estimation with respect to the initial de-interlaced pixel data for one of said first, second and third fields to determine motion vectors for said one of said first, second and third fields, said motion estimation including comparing at least one pixel in said first field with at least one pixel in said third field; and performing, in the de-interlacing processor, motion-compensated de-interlacing on said one of said first, second and third fields using the motion vectors determined by said motion estimation to generate second de-interlaced pixel data, different from said initial de-interlaced pixel data, for said one of said first, second and third fields, said motion-compensated de-interlacing for each of said fields being performed after said initial de-interlacing for said each of said fields.