A particular implementation receives a bitstream and derives parameters from the bitstream. The parameters include quantization parameters, content unpredictability parameters, ratios of lost blocks, ratios of propagated blocks, error concealment distances, motion vectors, durations of freezing, and frame rates. Using these parameters, a compression distortion factor, a slicing distortion factor, and a freezing distortion factor are estimated respectively for distortions resulting from video compression, a slicing mode error concealment, and a freezing slicing mode error concealment. The distortion factors are then mapped to a composite video quality score. For applications with limited computational power, the estimation of distortion factors can be simplified. In particular, the compression distortion factor, the slicing distortion factor, and the freezing distortion factor can be predicted from quantization parameters, ratios of lost blocks, and durations of freezing, respectively.