PURPOSE: To realize excellent picture quality by detecting the quality of an input picture and varying the noise elimination characteristic adaptively.

CONSTITUTION: An input picture 21 is fed to a subtractor 27, an HPF 22 and a detector 24. The HPF 22 extracts a high frequency component according to a gain by a control signal 29 and the component is outputted to an LIM 32. The LIM 32 selects a noise component of a small level in the high frequency component of the input picture and outputs the selected component to a variable amplifier 26. A detector 24 detects S/N, YH and lightness contributing to the picture quality of the input picture 21 and outputs three detection signals to a control circuit 25. The control circuit 25 receives the picture quality control signal and the three detection signals for the calculation and outputs control signals 28, 29 respectively to the variable amplifier 26 and the HPF 22. The subtractor 27 subtracts an output signal of the variable amplifier 26 from the input picture 21 to output an output picture with an optimum S/N.