Individual pixels in an image block undergo blending with film grain from a film grain block randomly selected from among a pool of previously established film grain blocks in accordance with a luma characteristic of the image block. Prior to blending, the selected film grain block undergoes deblocking by a deblocking filter ( 28 ). Following blending, a clipper clips the individual pixels prior to display. The pool of film grain blocks is created by scaling a set of film grain patterns in accordance with at least one parameter of a film grain information message that accompanies the image block.