CONTOUR EMPHASIZING CIRCUIT

A contour emphasizing circuit in which VE detected by a vertical contour component detecting unit and HE detected by a horizontal contour component detecting unit are added by a first adder and then multiplied by a coefficient, and the product is added to an input video signal by a second adder to output an emphasized-contour video signal. The circuit contains a comparing/judging unit for comparing VE with HE and judging whether or not the absolute value of the difference between them is smaller than a present value S, and a coefficient change-over multiplier unit for changing the coefficient by which the sum (VE+HE) is multiplied over to K/2 or K according to the judging signal. For a pixel from which both HE and VE are detected, the coefficient change-over multiplier is changed from K or K/2 by a judgment signal of the comparing/judging unit to decrease the contour emphasizing component. This prevents excessive contour emphasis of the pixel from which both HE and VE are detected, and natural profile emphasis is carried out.