A method for dynamic file availability during remote transfer and transcoding involves the conversion of a non-streamable media file to a streamable format prior to transcoding, and the streaming of the transcoded file before ingest and transcode is complete. A first portion of a non-streamable media file is received at an ingest server for transcoding. Upon determining that the first portion does not include a header, the probable location of the header in the media file is determined and a header portion of the file is received at the ingest server. The first portion is combined with at least part of the header to produce a first streamable segment. Prior to receiving the last portion of the media file at the ingest server, the first streamable segment is transcoded at a first transcode server to produce a first transcoded streamable segment.