Abstract: The invention enables processing of a time-varying video image in a manner that blurs (or "smears") the time-varying portion or portions of the video image as successive frames of video data are processed. Such smearing is particularly useful in reducing the choppiness and jerkiness that degrades the viewability of the time-varying portions of a displayed video image when the frame rate is low. The invention blends corresponding video data components from a current video frame and a previous video frame to achieve the smearing effect. The invention enables the degree to which the video data from each of the frames affects the processed video data to be varied. The exact blending can be based upon, for example, the magnitude of the frame rate. Further, in processing each video frame, each of a set of related video data components can be processed serially to enable the invention to be implemented more compactly and inexpensively.