Digital timing extraction and recovery in a digital video decoder

1. A digital video resampler and decoder comprising:

an input buffer coupled to a source of a video signal having horizontal synchronization boundaries, the video signal being oversampled by at least two times;

a horizontal synchronization detector coupled to the input buffer, the horizontal synchronization detector to detect horizontal synchronization boundaries in the video signal;

a counter coupled to the horizontal synchronization detector, the counter to count a total number of samples between a pair of the detected horizontal synchronization boundaries;

a comparator coupled to the counter, the comparator to compare the counted number of samples to a reference count;

a sample corrector coupled to the input buffer, wherein the sample corrector is operable to modify a block of samples based on a result from the comparator to generate a modified block of samples;

an output buffer coupled to the sample corrector to hold the modified block of samples; and

a comb filter coupled to the output buffer, the comb filter to generating a first and second three-dimensional color values (U.sub.3D & V.sub.3D) based on the modified block of samples.

2. The digital video resampler and decoder of claim 1 , wherein the reference count is within eight of 3432.

3. The digital video resampler and decoder of claim 1 , wherein the corrector comprises: an interpolator coupled to the input buffer, the interpolator to modify a phase of the block of samples; and a resampler coupled to the input buffer, the resampler to transform the counted number of samples to be a standard count different from the counted number of samples.

4. The digital video resampler and decoder of claim 1 , wherein the corrector comprises:

an interpolator coupled to the input buffer, the interpolator to modify a phase of the block of samples;

an expander coupled to the input buffer, the expander to transform the block of samples to be an increase number of samples; and

a compressor coupled to the input buffer, the compressor to transform the block of samples to be a decrease number of samples.

5. A method of digital video decoding, the method comprising:

buffering samples of a video signal;

detecting horizontal synchronization boundaries in the video signal;

counting a total number of samples between a pair of the horizontal synchronization boundaries;

comparing the total counted number of samples to a reference count;

correcting samples in the buffer based on the act of comparing the counted number of samples to the reference count to generate a modified block of samples;

rebuilding a horizontal synchronization signal;

generating a first three-dimensional color value (U.sub.3D) based on the modified block of samples; and

generating a second three-dimensional color value (V.sub.3D) based on the modified block of samples.

6. The method of claim 5 , further comprising oversampling a video signal by at least two times to generate the samples.

7. The method of claim 5 , wherein the act of detecting the horizontal synchronization boundaries comprises filtering the samples.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the act of filtering the samples comprises applying a convolution and an integration.

9. The method of claim 5 , wherein the act of detecting the horizontal synchronization boundaries comprises: detecting a first horizontal synchronization pulse from the samples signal; and detecting a second horizontal synchronization pulse from the samples signal.

10. The method of claim 5 , wherein the reference count is within eight of 3432.

11. The method of claim 5 , wherein the act of correcting samples comprises:

interpolating the buffered samples when the counted number of samples is within a first range;

compressing the buffered samples when the counted number of samples is larger than a first range; and

expanding the buffered samples when the counted number of samples is smaller than a first range.

12. The method of claim 5 , wherein the act of correcting samples comprises generating new samples between pairs of buffered samples by interpolating based on the buffered samples and the counted number of samples.

13. The method of claim 5 , wherein the act of correcting samples comprises resampling the samples.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the act of resampling the samples comprises expanding the samples to generate additional samples.

15. The method of claim 13 , wherein the act of resampling the samples comprises compressing the samples to reduce samples.

16. The method of claim 5 , wherein the act of generating the first and second three-dimensional color values (U.sub.3D & V.sub.3D) comprises applying a comb filter.

17. The method of claim 5 , further comprising: generating a luminance value (Y.sub.COMB).

18. A digital video resampler and decoder comprising:

means for buffering samples of a video signal;

means for detecting horizontal synchronization boundaries in the video signal;

means for counting a total number of samples between a pair of the horizontal synchronization boundaries;

means for comparing the counted total number of samples to a reference count;

means for correcting samples in the buffer based on the act of comparing the counted number of samples to the reference count to generate a modified block of samples;

means for rebuilding a horizontal synchronization signal;

means for generating a first three-dimensional color value (U.sub.3D) based on the modified block of samples; and

means for generating a second three-dimensional color value (V.sub.3D) based on the modified block of samples.