A new method for error detection using mode information of macroblocks (MBs) is proposed. For decodable inter MBs, inter residues are calculated by adding up absolute values of received residual pixels and intra complexities are estimated by that of motion compensated reference blocks. If inter residues are larger than intra complexities by a predefined quantity, MBs are considered to be erroneous. For decodable intra MBs, the connective smoothness of the current MB with correctly decoded neighboring MBs is tested to find erroneous MBs. Combined with error concealment, the new method improves the quality of reconstructed images by about 0.5-1 dB in peak signal-noise ratio (PSNR).