1. A method for configuring a block noise filter for filtering block noise in an image, the method, comprising: computing difference magnitudes in pixel values for adjacent pixels in the image, wherein the difference magnitudes comprise horizontal difference magnitudes for horizontally adjacent pixels and vertical difference magnitudes for vertically adjacent pixels; using normalized sums of the difference magnitudes to determine a set of noise characteristics of the block noise; using difference magnitude data to determine a set of image characteristics of the image; and configuring inputs to the block noise filter using the set of noise and image characteristics.