A system for detecting picture freeze within a video signal wherein a video signal processing portion for connection to a video signal source comprising digital video luma samples and digital video clock and timing signals separately detects motion across the vertical axis of the video picture and across the horizontal axis of the video picture and wherein a frozen picture indicating portion connected to the output of the video signal processing portion determines the number of motionless video picture frames occurring since the last video picture frame in which motion was detected to indicate picture freeze when the number of motionless video picture frames reaches a predetermined value. A noise reduction threshold signal is applied to the video signal processing portion to distinguish motion from background noise in a video signal.