Patent ID: 7236210

Claim:
An apparatus for inputting a video signal representative of a picture from a plurality of input channels, processing the video signal to apply a visual effect to the picture, and outputting the processed video signal to an output channel, the apparatus comprising: a parameter value setting section that includes a plurality of operators manually operable to set a plurality of parameter values used for applying a desired visual effect to the picture; a sequence control section having a memory for pre-storing a variation of a parameter value settable by one of the operators for a given time interval, said sequence control section sequentially reads out the parameter value from the memory when a reproduction of the video signal is requested, wherein said sequence control section reads out the parameter value in accordance with time progress of the reproduction of the video signal in order to vary with time the visual effect applied to the picture, and then sequentially feeds the read parameter to the video signal processing section; and a video signal processing section that processes the video signal inputted from at least one of the input channels according to the plurality of the parameter values, including the parameter value fed from the sequence control section, wherein the operators include a skip operator that is operated to specify a time interval of updating the parameter values, so that the sequence control section sequentially updates the parameter values stepwise at the time interval specified by the skip operator.