Fast scan technology for digital video tape recorders

A solution to the problems of implementing trick play on a compressed digital VTR (video tape recorder) is described. Because of loss of data in the fast-forward/fast-reverse playback, it is difficult to decode a useful image from the data recovered, and image quality is poor. The authors' proposal reserves an area on the tape which will be traversed during trick playback; a subset of the bitstream which is specifically adapted to trick play in this track is recorded. Thus, good-quality trick play is achieved without impact on normal playback and without decoding and recording the compressed bitstream.<>