Embodiments of the present invention provide media file receiving and media file sending methods, apparatuses, and systems. A media file receiving method includes: obtaining, by a client, an MPD fragment address of a first MPD fragment from a media presentation description MPD fragment index file according to a start-to-play time point requested by a user; sending, by the client, a first MPD fragment obtaining request including the MPD fragment address of the first MPD fragment to a server; receiving, by the client, the first MPD fragment fed back by the server, and sending a media segment obtaining request to the server according to media description information in the first MPD fragment; and receiving, by the client, a media segment fed back by the server. With the media receiving method according to the embodiments of the present invention, an objective of rapidly starting playing a media file can be achieved.