1. A method for determining a performance metric corresponding to a video stream transmitted from a server computing device to a remote client, comprising: determining pixel data for a plurality of macroblocks, each macroblock having a plurality of pixels, the macroblocks defined to be embedded in respective video frames of the video stream, wherein the pixel data for each pixel in each macroblock is based on a frame number of a respective video frame and a location of the pixel within the macroblock; wherein determining pixel data further includes: calculating RGB values for each pixel, the RGB values including a red value, a green value, and a blue value; embedding the macroblocks in the respective video frames; transmitting the video frames with the embedded macroblocks to the remote client, wherein the video frames are displayed on the remote client; wherein the remote client calculates expected macroblocks; and wherein the performance metric for the transmitted video stream is calculated based on a comparison of the macroblocks received at the remote client and the expected macroblocks, wherein operations of the method are executed by a processor.