Patent ID: 8208783

Claim:
A method of processing an image signal with an image processing apparatus that includes a signal processing unit, the method comprising steps of: receiving, at the signal processing unit, an input image signal to which first identification information indicative of a level range of each scene in the input image signal is added; detecting the first identification information and determining the level range of each scene in the input image signal; converting the level range of each scene of the input image signal into a first predetermined level range in accordance with the first identification information and second identification information which corresponds to a level range of the image processing apparatus; adding the second identification information to each scene of the converted image signal so that the second identification information indicates the first predetermined level range of each scene in the converted image signal; and outputting the converted image signal and the second identification information added thereto, wherein the first and second identification information include information indicating at least one of the level range and a source identification flag which is used by the signal processing unit with respect to each scene of the input image signal.