A video recording and playback apparatus and method by which accurate motion detection can be executed is disclosed. A noise reduction processing circuit performs noise reduction processing for video data inputted thereto from a switch and outputs resulting video data to a motion detection processing section and a video signal interpolation processing section. The motion detection processing section performs a motion detection process for the received video data and outputs a result of the motion detection to the video signal interpolation processing section. The video signal interpolation processing section performs an interpolation process for the video data inputted thereto from the noise reduction processing circuit based on the result of the motion detection received from the motion detection processing section and outputs resulting video data.