A bitrate selector on a user device monitors a first stream of a plurality of bitrate media streams of a media file, the first media stream having a first bitrate, these plurality of bitrate media streams comprising a first subset of bitrate media streams including the first media stream and a second subset of bitrate media streams having a bitrate higher than the first bitrate. The bitrate selector calculates an expected download time for a subsequent chunk of the media file in each bitrate media stream of the second subset of bitrate media streams. The bitrate selector selects a bitrate media stream of the second subset of bitrate media streams for the subsequent chunk based on the expected download times and downloads the subsequent chunk from the selected bitrate media stream.