Quadrature demodulation (30, 32) of the color subcarrier produces color signal digital words I and Q which are each sampled and latched (36, 42) during the color subcarrier burst.

Burst phase detecting means (3) detects phase information (p) of a color subcarrier in each line of the composite color video signal.

The timing signal is also used to align the color subcarrier signal and to generate other carrier and subcarrier signals used in the decoding process.

ACC (90) is effectuated by digital gain control for scaling the digital words representing the sampled magnitudes of the color subcarrier burst signals.

A digital VTR for recording and reproducing digital PAL signals sampled at a frequency 2m times (m is a positive integer) as great as the color subcarrier frequency.

The frequency response of known IF filters can be exploited advantageously to form a Nyquist flank on the colour carrier.

If the phase used is a constant V-phase of the colour carrier, any disturbances in the compatible reception are advantageously slight.

The additional information is transmitted in the black stripes of the letterblock format with ultra-black modulation, e.g. modulated on the colour carrier.

The modulated colour carrier (F) is recorded with second heads (K2) with wider gaps in a deeper-lying layer of the magnetic tape (T).