In various embodiments, a quality inference application estimates the perceived quality of reconstructed videos. The quality inference application computes a first feature value for a first feature included in a feature vector based on a color component associated with a reconstructed video. The quality inference application also computes a second feature value for a second feature included in the feature vector based on a brightness component associated with the reconstructed video. Subsequently, the quality inference application computes a perceptual quality score based on the first feature value and the second feature value. The perceptual quality score indicates a level of visual quality associated with at least one frame included in the reconstructed video.