In this paper, we propose an efficient shot change detection algorithm for MPEG compressed video by using a novel histogram feature essentially different from conventional ones. This algorithm is based on the adjacent pixel intensity difference quantization (APIDQ) histogram method, which had been reliably applied to human face recognition previously. The proposed algorithm has been evaluated by publicly reliable MPEG video database. Experimental results show the APIDQ histogram method can detect shot changes in MPEG video more accurately and robustly than conventional methods.