Abstract: A picture quality correcting device which no longer relies solely on the frequency characteristic for picture quality correction, and which prevents disturbance in the group delay characteristic occurring due to a large variation in the frequency characteristic of the luminance signal, thereby greatly decreasing deterioration of picture quality of the played-back image. A noise component from the luminance signal is extracted by a noise canceller. Then, the noise component is deducted from the luminance signal by inverting the polarity of the noise component and composing it with the luminance signal. The high-frequency component of the luminance signal released by the noise canceller is corrected by a picture-tone circuit. The amount of noise suppression of the noise canceller and the amount of correction of the high-frequency component of the picture-tone circuit is made variable according to a control voltage by adjusting a picture quality adjuster.