Abstract: A system for streaming data includes a channel for communicating requests between a client and server and another channel for transmitting streaming video. The client creates a media file for archiving received video data. A global list maintained by the client identifies all available data in the media file. A monitoring thread tracks the global list to identify unavailable data needed for playback, identify approaching data discontinuities, merge global list entries for contiguous chunks of available data and identify remaining unavailable data. The client requests unavailable data from the server until the media file is full. A client-side player with a graphical user interface facilitates pause, stop, play, fast forward, jump (scroll), and rewind operations. The system may play video data as streamed and store the streamed video data for playback in a download and store mode.