1. A method of digital watermark detection comprising: using a computer programmed as a digital watermark detector to perform the acts of: computing signal characteristics of a host digitally watermarked signal; analyzing the characteristics to determine an extent to which the signal characteristics correspond to characteristics of a digital watermark; and adapting parameters of digital watermark prediction applied to the watermarked signal based on the extent to which the signal characteristics correspond to the characteristics of the digital watermark; wherein the parameters correspond to a type of prediction filter that is selected based on the signal characteristics.