A video signal processing apparatus for use in a video tape recorder of the PAL system obtains a composite video signal without causing a vertical colour shift on a display screen which would normally be caused by a time difference between a chrominance signal and a luminance signal. The apparatus comprises a 1H delay circuit (1) for delaying an input luminance signal by one horizontal synchronizing period (1H), an operational circuit (12), a 2H comb filter (10) that passes an input chrominance signal, and an adder circuit (5) for adding an output signal of the operational circuit (12) and an output signal of the 2H comb filter (10) thereby to obtain the composite video signal. The operational circuit (12) allows an output signal of the 1H delay circuit to pass therethrough when a difference in level between the input luminance signal and the output signal of the 1H delay circuit is large, and, when the difference is small, outputs a sum of the two signals.