Provided are apparatus and method for precise motion detection in a digital video recording (DVR) system using a Moving Picture Expert Group (MPEG) video compression technique and a computer-readable recording medium for recording a program that implements the method. The motion detection apparatus performs motion detection by using a motion vector generated in the MPEG video compression process. The motion detection apparatus includes: a motion estimation unit for receiving a reference image frame and a current image frame, and estimating a motion vector (MV=(mx,my)) for a motion of an object; a motion compensation unit for calculating a motion compensated prediction error E_MV(i) based on the estimated motion vector (MV=(mx,my)); a frame difference calculation unit for calculating a frame difference between the reference image frame and the current image frame; a motion block accumulation unit for accumulating the number (B_motion) of motion blocks in the current image frame based on the motion compensated prediction error E_MV(i) and the frame difference E₀(i); and a motion frame determination unit for determining whether the current image frame has a motion, based on the accumulated number B_motion of motion blocks.