Systems and methods for saving encoded media streamed using adaptive bitrate streaming in accordance with embodiments of the invention are disclosed. In one embodiment of the invention, a playback device configured to perform adaptive bitrate streaming of media includes a video decoder application and a processor, where the video decoder application configures the processor to select a download stream from a set of alternative streams of video data, measure streaming conditions and request a stream of video data from the alternative streams of video data, receive portions of video data from the requested stream of video data, decode the received video data, save the received video data to memory, when the received video data is from the download stream and separately download and save the corresponding portion of video data from the download stream to memory, when the received video data is not from the download stream.