IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS, IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD, AND COMPUTER PROGRAM

Video signals such as television reception signals are recorded in a suitable manner taking into consideration the use of external devices each having a different aspect ratio. The aspect ratio of an original video signal is converted so that the image has roundness of 1 and has the maximum size fitting in the particular screen reproducing the recorded video signal. Then, a background signal of a size the same as the screen size or a size needed for video combination is generated, and the result is added around the video signal to generate any desired video signal size. In such a manner, the recorded image has the aspect ratio matching that of the reproduced image.