A macroblock in a video sequence may be undecodable because the corresponding compressed data is lost or the syntax is out of synchronization. An undecodable macroblock may be concealed using error concealment technique. The level of initial visible artifacts caused by undecodable macroblocks may be estimated as a function of motion magnitude, error concealment distance, and/or residual energy. The initial visible artifacts may propagate spatially or temporally to other macroblocks through prediction. Considering both initial visible artifacts and propagated artifacts, levels of overall artifacts may be estimated for individual macroblocks. The visual quality for the video sequence can then be estimated by pooling the macroblock level artifact levels.