Method and systems for optimized content encoding

A method comprising:

• receiving a plurality of portions of a content item;
• determining, based on an indication of a network condition, a respective bitrate for each portion, of one or more portions, of the plurality of portions of the content item;
• determining, for each portion of the one or more portions of the content item, based on the respective bitrate, a respective quantization parameter and a respective adjustment parameter that minimize a cost function;
• and
• encoding, based on the respective quantization parameters and the respective adjustment parameters, each portion of the one or more portions of the content item.

A method comprising:

• sending, to a user device, at least a portion of a plurality of portions of a content item at a bitrate;
• determining, based on an indication of a network condition, another bitrate;
• determining, based on the another bitrate, a quantization parameter and an adjustment parameter that minimize a cost function;
• and
• sending, based on the quantization parameter and the adjustment parameter, at least another portion of the plurality of portions of the content item at the target bitrate.