Abstract: An approach for streaming a coded virtual reality (VR) video stream including receiving a segments of the coded VR video stream; storing the segments in a playback buffer; based on determining that a current playback time is within a threshold time of a playback time of a buffered segment, that a current duration of the playback buffer is larger than a threshold duration, and that a current bandwidth is larger than a threshold bandwidth, and that a current viewport is different from a previous viewport, storing at least one refined tile corresponding to the current viewport in the playback buffer; constructing a frame based on the buffered segment and the at least one refined tile corresponding to the current viewport; and decoding the coded VR video stream based on the constructed frame.