US Patent 7391477 Apparatus and method for processing video signal

An amplitude discrimination circuit separates a received video signal into a signal component with a minute amplitude level and other signal component with a high amplitude level. A contour correction circuit performs contour correction processing on a signal with the high amplitude level and a nonlinear processing circuit performs nonlinear processing after adding the signal with high amplitude level to an output from a delay circuit which delays the received video signal by the time required for the contour correction processing performed by the contour correction circuit. A minute amplitude contour correction circuit performs contour correction processing on the signal with the minute amplitude level and an adder circuit adds the signal with the minute amplitude level to an output from the nonlinear processing circuit after delaying the signal with the minute amplitude level by the time required for the nonlinear processing performed by a delay circuit.