Patent ID: 8237753

Claim:
A display device performing brightness control of a backlight and gradation conversion of an image, comprising: a display panel including a plurality of pixel circuits; a drive circuit that drives the display panel; a backlight that irradiates a back side of the display panel with light; a gradation conversion unit that performs gradation conversion on an input image, by applying a predetermined gain to a gradation smaller than a boundary gradation and applying, to a gradation larger than the boundary gradation, a gain which decreases as the gradation increases, and that outputs a converted image to the drive circuit; and an image analysis unit that analyzes the input image and determines a gradation conversion characteristic of the gradation conversion unit and brightness of the backlight, wherein the image analysis unit obtains the boundary gradation and a maximum gradation included in the input image based on the input image and, based on the obtained two gradations, determines the gradation conversion characteristic of the gradation conversion unit so that the brightness control of the backlight is performed when the brightness decreasing rate of the maximum gradation becomes a limit value or less, and wherein the gradation conversion is based on a first brightness value at the maximum gradation when the brightness control is performed and the gradation conversion is based on a second brightness value at the maximum gradation when the brightness control is not performed.