A method for providing media content in a computer network includes storing the media content, where the media content includes a segment having a group of frames. The method also includes determining a transmission rate for traffic to a client device. The method further includes selecting a subset of frames to drop from the group of frames based on (i) the transmission rate and (ii) a frame difference distortion (FDIFF) metric of each frame in the subset of frames. The method also includes shaping the segment by dropping the selected subset of frames from the group of frames, where the shaped segment has a lower bitrate than the segment. In addition, the method includes transmitting the shaped segment to the client device.