Patent ID: 7623576

Claim:
A method of processing video data to detect field characteristics of the data, said data having a plurality of fields, comprising: in a video processing apparatus, calculating a first difference value as a difference between pixels of a first field and pixels of a second field, said first field being successive to said second field; calculating a second difference value between the pixels of said first field and pixels of a third field, said third field being successive to said first field; calculating a ratio between said first and second difference values; comparing said ratio with a threshold; determining whether said first field is an interlaced field or a progressive field with respect to said third field based on said steps of calculating, wherein the determining step includes determining whether said first field is an interlaced field or a progressive field based on said comparing step; and calculating the number of moving pixels between said second and third fields, wherein the determining step includes determining that said first field is an interlaced field if said number is lower than a moving pixel threshold, and determining that said first and third fields are progressive if said number is not lower than the moving pixel threshold.