A detected image output by a holographic storage system is comprised of a grid of dark and light spots, representing high and low logic states. The image is superimposed onto a grid of detector elements or pixels in a detector. Each of the data bits is represented by a bit image or bixel, which is oversampled by a factor of two along the x- and y-axis by the pixels. A state machine is utilized to generate expected states for each of the pixels and then an energy shifting operation performed to shift energy from a pixel having a higher than expected output value to a pixel having a lower than expected output value. This operation can result in energy being shifted from the left to the right or the right to the left. Column synchronization is performed by defining a set of pixels in a row for each column as a segment with an associated parity bit and row number. Each segment may be output as validated, or may be retained in a buffer until all previous segments in a row have been accumulated and/or output.