A spatially adaptive quantization-aware deblocking filter is used for encoding or decoding video or image frames. The deblocking filter receives a reconstructed frame produced based on dequantized and inverse transformed coefficients of a video frame or an image frame. The reconstructed frame is filtered according to adaptive quantization field data for the video or image frame. The adaptive quantization field data represents weights applied to quantization values used at different areas of the video or image frame. A number of blocking artifacts remaining within the resulting filtered frame is determined. The adaptive quantization field data is then adjusted based on that number of blocking artifacts. The filtered frame is then filtered according to the adjusted adaptive quantization field data. The resulting re-filtered frame is then output to an output source, such as for transmission, display, storage, or further processing.