A liquid crystal display apparatus that has a liquid crystal panel that displays a video according to an input video signal, a light source that illuminates the liquid crystal panel, and a brightness detecting means to detect the surrounding brightness, wherein at least one feature quantity characterizes a brightness of said video signal; and the liquid crystal display apparatus is adapted to change the luminance control characteristic thereof that defines the emission luminance of the light source corresponding to said feature quantity, based on the surrounding brightness detected by the brightness detecting means, wherein the luminance control characteristic being such that a) the emission luminance of the light source is reduced corresponding to the decrease of surrounding brightness detected by the brightness detecting means, a dependency of the luminance control characteristic on the feature quantity and the surrounding brightness being illustrated by a plurality of diagrams, each diagram corresponding to a specific surrounding brightness and showing the feature quantity in the abscissa and the emission luminance of the light source in the ordinate, and including a characteristic change point (B1, B2, B3) that is a point at which the slope of the emission luminance control characteristic relative to the feature quantity is changed, b) a first diagram, corresponding to a first surrounding brightness which is higher than a second surrounding brightness, is above a second diagram corresponding to the second surrounding brightness, both diagrams having similar forms, c) the position of a characteristic change point when the surrounding brightness is reduced, and a diagram corresponding to the reduced surrounding brightness is thereby used compared to a diagram corresponding to a higher surrounding brightness, is shifted in such a direction that a region of the feature quantity that provides the highest brightness of the emission luminance of the light source, is reduced, or in such a direction that a region of the feature quantity that provides the lowest brightness as the emission luminance of the light source, is increased. a) the emission luminance of the light source is reduced corresponding to the decrease of surrounding brightness detected by the brightness detecting means, a dependency of the luminance control characteristic on the feature quantity and the surrounding brightness being illustrated by a plurality of diagrams, each diagram corresponding to a specific surrounding brightness and showing the feature quantity in the abscissa and the emission luminance of the light source in the ordinate, and including a characteristic change point (B1, B2, B3) that is a point at which the slope of the emission luminance control characteristic relative to the feature quantity is changed, b) a first diagram, corresponding to a first surrounding brightness which is higher than a second surrounding brightness, is above a second diagram corresponding to the second surrounding brightness, both diagrams having similar forms, c) the position of a characteristic change point when the surrounding brightness is reduced, and a diagram corresponding to the reduced surrounding brightness is thereby used compared to a diagram corresponding to a higher surrounding brightness, is shifted in such a direction that a region of the feature quantity that provides the highest brightness of the emission luminance of the light source, is reduced, or in such a direction that a region of the feature quantity that provides the lowest brightness as the emission luminance of the light source, is increased.