Embodiments of the present disclosure emulate multicast by generating and synchronizing multiple unicasts of a single content in different encoding formats to multiple devices on a shared network. In one embodiment, a method for multicast emulation includes receiving a request to join an active stream containing a media content. The method also includes identifying a position of the active stream from which to start a new unicast stream of the same media content. The method further includes providing the new unicast stream starting from the identified position, where the new unicast stream is in a format independent from the format of the active stream and the new unicast stream is synchronized to the active stream.