SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR ADAPTIVE BITRATE STREAMING OF MEDIA STORED IN MATROSKA CONTAINER FILES USING HYPERTEXT TRANSFER PROTOCOL

Systems and methods for adaptive bitrate streaming of media stored in Matroska container files utilizing Hypertext Transfer Potocol (HTTP) in accordance with embodiments of the invention are disclosed. In one embodiment, a processor configured, via a client application, to request portions of files from a remote server. In addition, the client application further configures the processor to retrieve top level index data that identifies a plurality of EBML container files and describes at least a maximum bitrate of the alternative streams contained within the EBML container files, parse the top level index data to obtain information identifying the plurality of EBML container files, request a portion of at least one of the EBML container files that contains the at least one element that specifies the encoding parameters of the stream contained within the EBML container file, retrieve an index that references each element containing portions of encoded video within at least one of the EBML container files, utilize the index to request portions of a first EBML container file that includes elements that contain portions of encoded video, receive and buffer the requested elements, decode the encoded video contained within the buffered elements utilizing the encoding parameters, measure current streaming conditions, and select another of the EBML container files from which to retrieve elements containing portions of encoded video for decoding, where the selection is based upon the measured streaming conditions and the description of the bitrate of the alternative stream contained within the top level data.