Aspects of the subject disclosure may include, for example, communicating with a source of streaming media, wherein the streaming media is variable bitrate encoded, wherein the streaming media comprises a first plurality of chunks, wherein each of the first plurality of chunks corresponds to a first portion of the streaming media, wherein the streaming media comprises a second plurality of chunks, wherein each of the second plurality of chunks corresponds to a second portion of the streaming media, wherein the streaming media comprises a third plurality of chunks, and wherein each of the third plurality of chunks corresponds to a third portion of the streaming media; obtaining, from the source, a first one of the first plurality of chunks; and determining which of the second plurality of chunks and third plurality of chunks to obtain. Other embodiments are disclosed.