In one embodiment, a device in a network sends a long term reference frame of a video stream to one or more nodes in the network using a reliable transport mechanism. Subsequent to sending the long term reference frame, the device sends a sequence of regular frames of the video stream to the one or more nodes using an unreliable transport mechanism, whereby a frame in the sequence is derived from a directly prior frame in the sequence. The device identifies an expiration of a wait time from when the long term reference frame was first sent. The device sends a regular frame derived from the long term reference frame via the unreliable transport mechanism after the expiration of the wait time and subsequent to sending the sequence of regular frames.