The present invention provides a method and apparatus for the correction of time base errors in a video signal. The method and apparatus may combine a horizontal scaler and a time base corrector. A time base corrector in accordance with the present invention can function without locking a clock to a horizontal synchronization signal. Furthermore, a method or apparatus in accordance with the present invention may operate as a finite impulse response filter, an infinite impulse response filter, a low pass filter or an adaptive filter.