An HD-MAC television decoder comprises a 40 ms decoding branch (16-27), and an 80 ms mode decoding branch (38). For decoding 80 ms mode blocks in principle samples from four successively received 80 ms mode blocks are required. An HD-MAC television decoder can do with only three field memories (FM1-FM3) if at temporal mode changes where a sequence of 80 ms mode blocks is followed or preceded by non-80 ms mode blocks, any missing samples required by the 80 ms mode decoder (38) are taken from the output of the 40 ms mode decoder (16-27) by appropriate switching of switch (30).
