An apparatus for band compression processing of a picture signal which generates forecasting error signal and movement vector and updates only the movement vector during a comb-out operation. During comb-out processing, a picture signal is recirculated while the movement vector is produced and accumulated. At the end of the comb-out processing, the change in the movement vector from the accumulated vector is within a desired range. Therefore, the scale of a circuit for detecting the movement vector after the comb-out operation does not increase.