In an apparatus for time-compression video recording and time-expansion reproduction, first and second memory address counters are initialized in response to there being a simultaneous presence of vertical and horizontal sync pulses. Until the next vertical blanking period the counters are continuously incremented at different rates during mutually exclusive times for successively writing and reading the luminance component of a composite color television signal. A third memory address counter operable in recyclically variable count modes is provided for writing and reading the color-difference components at sequentially varying rates during a count cycle and generating an output pulse at the end of the count cycle. A phase comparator detects the phase difference between the horizontal sync pulse and the output pulse of the third address counter. A variable frequency oscillator is responsive to the phase difference for incrementing the third address counter at a rate corresponding to the phase difference.