invention the nonlinear scaling e g the location and size of the area of interest is adjustable by a user so that the user can adjust the scaling in real time according to the user 39 s preferences at least some embodiments of the nonlinear scaling of the present inventions can also be applied to display devices such as monitors display panels television sets or high definition television sets the display devices according to one embodiment of the present invention contain circuits for nonlinearly scaling video signals to compensate distortions in aspect ratio due to linear scaling at areas of interest typically the center region or strip of the display device fig7 8 show block diagram examples of display devices for nonlinear anamorphic scaling of video images according to embodiments of the present invention in fig7 after the video signal is received from a source e g an external connection or a turner at signal receiving circuit 701 the control signals e g rgb color signals horizontal and vertical synchronization signals hsync and vsync are generated e g according to linear scaling in both directions under control of aspect ratio adjustment data signal e g received from a control button of the display device or determined from the input video signal and the aspect ratio of the display device retiming circuit 705 adjusts the timing of the horizontal and or vertical scanline control signal to scale the image in the horizontal or vertical direction nonlinearly for example the horizontal scanline control signal of a crt monitor can be changed from a linear function of time to a nonlinear function of time so that the timing of the activation of the.