Mechanisms for providing data streams are disclosed. A device accesses a mapping stored at the device that maps a desired media content item to a source address and to a range of addresses in a storage device of a remote content distribution server allocated to the desired media content item. The device preforms a direct memory-to-memory transfer of the desired media content item from the remote content distribution server to a local memory of the device using the range of addresses. The device encapsulates the desired media content item from the local memory into a plurality of packets according to a streaming protocol. Encapsulating the desired media content item includes inserting into each of the plurality of packets the source address. The plurality of packets are streamed.