Abstract: A line sychronizing circuit in a picture display device, has a phase control loop including an oscillator and a phase comparison stage. In order to enlarge the capture range of the control loop, the phase comparison stage is in the form of a phase-frequency detector having a trigger action on edges of pulses applied, the circuit being provided with means for inhibiting the supply of the control signal form the phase-frequency detector during a predetermined period after establishing that the phase difference measured by the phase-frequency detector between the local line-frequency signal and the incoming line synchronizing signal is larger than a predetermined value. In the perdetermined period, the oscillator signal has substantially the same frequency as before establishing that the phase difference measured by the phase frequency detector is larger than the predetermined value.