This paper describes the results of two studies undertaken to better understand the strong positive relationship between the content of a video clip and viewers' subjective ratings of the video quality of that clip. Experiment 1 evaluated the effect of training on video quality ratings. Experiment 2 assessed the impact of attention in these assessments. Experiment 1 showed that training participants on video quality assessment techniques removed viewers' heuristic reliance on affect while increasing accuracy. Experiment 2 demonstrated that participants' video quality ratings could also be improved by directing their focus of attention. Focusing viewers on quality did not show a moderation of the relationship between content immersion and video quality, as participants maintained high levels of content immersion even when focusing on video quality. Because training and attention increased quality rating accuracy, they could be utilized in video quality testing to improve the viewer feedback received. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.