Motion wake identification and control mechanism

The present invention provides a system and method for detecting macroblocks of a video frame that are located in one or more motion wake regions of the video frame. In one embodiment, a motion wake engine is configured to select a subset of macroblocks comprising non-peripherally located macroblocks selected to be inter-coded with motion vector magnitudes less than a predetermined motion vector threshold. Then, the motion wake engine identifies which macroblocks of the subset of macroblocks are located in first, second, third, or fourth motion wake regions of the video frame based upon a motion vector analysis of nearest neighbor macroblocks. In another embodiment of the invention, the motion wake engine applies error concealment/video improvement techniques to the identified macroblocks for video error concealment and for reducing visual artifacts associated with the motion wake regions.