To store and retrieve large-scale video data sets effectively, the process of shot-change detection is an essential step. In this paper, we propose an automatic shot-change detection algorithm based on Visual Rhythm Spectrum. The Visual Rhythm Spectrum contains distinctive patterns or visual features for many different types of video effects. For the improvement of detection speed, the proposed algorithm is executed by using the partial data of digital compressed video. The proposed detection algorithm can be universally applied to various kinds of shot-change categories such as scene-cuts and wipes. It is shown by simulations that the proposed detection algorithm outperforms other existing approaches.