DOWN-CONVERSION DECODER FOR INTERLACED VIDEO

A downsampling apparatus converts a received DCT coefficient macroblock to a reconstructed pixel block and includes an IDCT module that performs an inverse DCT on the received DCT coefficient macroblock to produce a first intermediate block. A horizontal downsampler horizontally downsamples the first intermediate block to produce a second intermediate block. A calculation module calculates first and second errors. The first and second errors are calculated based upon a difference between the first intermediate block and first and second downsampled/upsampled versions of the first intermediate block derived from corresponding first and second vertical downsampling filters. A filtering module vertically downsamples the second intermediate block using the first or second vertical downsampling filter depending upon whether the first or second error is smaller. A motion compensator adds prediction reference pixels to the horizontally and vertically downsampled block, as appropriate, to form reconstructed pixels.