Systems and Methods for Automatically Generating Top Level Index Files

A method for streaming a piece of content at a playback server, comprising:

• storing information for a plurality of alternative video streams associated with a specific piece of content, wherein the information comprises, for each of the plurality of alternative video streams, a width, a height, a video bitrate, an audio bitrate, and an encoding element identifying the encoding of the video stream;
• receiving a request for content from a playback device, wherein the request comprises:
• an electronic token to obtain access to the content,
• information indicative of a geographic location of the playback device, and
• device information related to the playback device;
• determining a set of alternative video streams from the plurality of alternative video streams to return based on the request;
• generating a top level index the describing each of the set of alternative video streams, wherein the top level index file describes the assets that are best suited to playback on the playback device;
• retrieving cryptographic information, where the cryptographic information is used to access protected streams described in the top level index file;
• and
• providing the cryptographic information and the top level index file to the playback device using the playback server.