Aspects of the subject disclosure may include, for example, a method in which a processing system obtains encoded video content, and transmits the encoded video content over a network for presentation at a communication device by a video player executing on the communication device. The encoded video content is decoded in a decoding process by a decoder of an operating system of the communication device to generate decoded video content; the decoded video content is analyzed by a complexity analyzer of the operating system to generate a video complexity report. The method also includes receiving the video complexity report over the network from the communication device, and adjusting a data rate for the encoded video content, based at least in part on the video complexity report, to generate adjusted video content for transmission to the communication device. Other embodiments are disclosed.