A method of adaptive bitrate streaming of media, comprising: transcoding source media as a number of alternative streams, where the alternative streams are streams that encode the same media content at different bitrates, wherein each portion of the source media video is encoded at different bit rates in such a way that the portion of video is encoded in each of the alternative streams as at least one closed group of pictures starting with an Instantaneous Decoder Refresh frame; generating a top level index file, where the top level index file identifies a plurality of container files containing the streams and at least a plurality of the streams are the alternative streams, wherein each of the plurality of container files includes a single stream; retrieving the top level index file by a playback device (18, 20, 200); and utilizing information in the top level index file by the playback device (18, 20, 200) to retrieve encoded media from the plurality of container files according to the streaming conditions experienced by the playback device (18, 20, 200), wherein each of the plurality of container files includes (a) information concerning the encoded media contained within the container file and (b) an index to the encoded media within the container file, and the top level index file indicates the portions of each of the plurality of container files containing the information concerning the encoded media contained within the container file and the index to the encoded media within the container file, wherein the index to the encoded media within each of the plurality of container files enables the playback device to stream the entirety of the stream contained in the container file. transcoding source media as a number of alternative streams, where the alternative streams are streams that encode the same media content at different bitrates, wherein each portion of the source media video is encoded at different bit rates in such a way that the portion of video is encoded in each of the alternative streams as at least one closed group of pictures starting with an Instantaneous Decoder Refresh frame; generating a top level index file, where the top level index file identifies a plurality of container files containing the streams and at least a plurality of the streams are the alternative streams, wherein each of the plurality of container files includes a single stream; retrieving the top level index file by a playback device (18, 20, 200); and utilizing information in the top level index file by the playback device (18, 20, 200) to retrieve encoded media from the plurality of container files according to the streaming conditions experienced by the playback device (18, 20, 200), wherein each of the plurality of container files includes (a) information concerning the encoded media contained within the container file and (b) an index to the encoded media within the container file, and the top level index file indicates the portions of each of the plurality of container files containing the information concerning the encoded media contained within the container file and the index to the encoded media within the container file, wherein the index to the encoded media within each of the plurality of container files enables the playback device to stream the entirety of the stream contained in the container file.