1. A method for detecting artifacts in a video having a sequence of consecutive one or more pictures, comprising the steps of: calculating a motion vector cost between a current picture and at least one previously filtered picture from the sequence of consecutive one or more pictures; computing a filter coefficient based on the motion vector cost; applying a filter using the filter coefficient on the current picture to create a filtered picture to be used for next iteration; calculating a variable threshold for each of the one or more pictures, wherein the variable threshold for each picture is based on the variable threshold of the corresponding previous picture; monitoring the sequence of one or more pictures for a scene change, wherein the step of monitoring comprises of comparing the motion vector cost of each picture with the corresponding variable threshold of the picture, and if the motion vector cost for the picture is greater than the variable threshold of the picture, then calculating a first confidence value corresponding to a first scene change profile for the picture and a second confidence value corresponding to a second scene change profile for the picture, wherein the first confidence value and the second confidence value are based on the motion vector cost of the picture, motion vector cost of one or more previous pictures and motion vector cost of one or more subsequent pictures; comparing the first confidence value with the second confidence value for the picture, and setting a scene change metric for the picture to be equal to the first confidence value if the first confidence value is higher than the second confidence value, else setting the scene change metric for the picture to be equal to the second confidence value; calculating an artifact metric for the picture, wherein the artifact metric is an exponential function of the motion vector cost of the pictures, variable threshold of the picture, and the scene change metric of the picture; and comparing the artifact metric for the picture with a programmable artifact reporting threshold, if the artifact metric for the picture is greater than the artifact reporting threshold then reporting the video as having an artifact.