A method of evaluating motion estimation between a pair of digitized images includes receiving a distance map between a source block in a source image and all the blocks in a search area in a target image, scanning each column of the distance map, and saving indices of a minimum distance value for each column, scanning each row of the distance map, and saving indices of a minimum distance value for each row, locating candidate lines that pass through at least some local minima points that correspond to locations in the distance map of the minimum distance value in each of the columns or the minimum distance value in each of the rows determining a confidence level for each candidate line that passes through at least some of the local minima points, and selecting those candidate lines whose confidence level is greater than a predetermined threshold value.