Method and apparatus for MPEG artifact reduction

Disclosed herein are methods and apparatus, including computer program products, implementing and using techniques for reducing mosquito noise in an image frame of a video signal. A window of the image frame is provided. The window includes a plurality of pixel values. One of the pixel values is selected from the pixel values in the window to define a modified window of pixel value differences. A local mean (DC) value is computed based on the pixel value differences. A mosquito noise reduction value is also computed based on the pixel value differences. An artifact attenuation factor is computed as a function of a dynamic range measure of the pixel value differences. A weighted sum of the mosquito noise reduction value and the local mean value, applying the artifact attenuation factor, and the selected pixel value, is computed to generate a modified pixel value.