A method of retrieving multimedia data, the method comprising: analyzing, by a client device, at least a first portion of a manifest file for multimedia content, wherein the first portion of the manifest file includes information (254A, 254B) indicative of sets of representations of the multimedia content, information (256A, 256B) indicative of common characteristics for each of the sets of representations, and information (258A, 258B) indicative of a location of at least one second portion (260A, 260B) of the manifest file, each second portion of the manifest file including information (262A, 262B; 264A, 264B) indicative of characteristics of individual representations (272A, 272B); (282A, 282B) of one set of representations (270; 280),; selecting, by the client device, one of the sets of representations based on the common characteristics for the one of the sets of representations; determining, by the client device, the location of the second portion of the manifest file related to the selected one of the sets of representations; retrieving, by the client device, the second portion of the manifest file relating to the selected one of the sets of representations; selecting, by the client device, one of the representations of the selected one of the sets of representations based on information (262A; 262B; 264A; 264B) on one or more coding characteristics of the one of the representations of the one of the sets included in the retrieved second portion of the manifest file; and generating, by the client device, a request for multimedia data of the selected representation of the selected set of representations. analyzing, by a client device, at least a first portion of a manifest file for multimedia content, wherein the first portion of the manifest file includes information (254A, 254B) indicative of sets of representations of the multimedia content, information (256A, 256B) indicative of common characteristics for each of the sets of representations, and information (258A, 258B) indicative of a location of at least one second portion (260A, 260B) of the manifest file, each second portion of the manifest file including information (262A, 262B; 264A, 264B) indicative of characteristics of individual representations (272A, 272B); (282A, 282B) of one set of representations (270; 280),; selecting, by the client device, one of the sets of representations based on the common characteristics for the one of the sets of representations; determining, by the client device, the location of the second portion of the manifest file related to the selected one of the sets of representations; retrieving, by the client device, the second portion of the manifest file relating to the selected one of the sets of representations; selecting, by the client device, one of the representations of the selected one of the sets of representations based on information (262A; 262B; 264A; 264B) on one or more coding characteristics of the one of the representations of the one of the sets included in the retrieved second portion of the manifest file; and generating, by the client device, a request for multimedia data of the selected representation of the selected set of representations.