A system and method for acquiring media data to be transmitted through a media network to a terminal and receiving a receiver report from the terminal, and estimating the condition of the network using information from the receiver report. Determining a data path based on whether the media network is congested, wherein the data path is a compression data path if the media network is congested, or the data path is a pass-through data path if the media network is not congested; and providing the media data through the determined data path.