We describe a new approach to the detection and classication of scene breaks in video sequences. Our method can detect and classify a variety of scene breaks, including cuts, fades, dissolves and wipes, even in sequences involving signi cant motion. We detect the appearance of intensity edges that are distant from edges in the previous frame. A global motion computation is used to handle camera or object motion. The algorithm we propose withstands JPEG and MPEG artifacts, even at very high compression rates. Experimental evidence demonstrates that our method can detect and classify scene breaks that are di cult to detect with previous approaches. An initial implementation runs at approximately 2 frames per second on a Sun workstation. KEYWORDS Content-based indexing and retrieval video processing