Displaying a video stream when constrained by system memory and connection bandwidth. When the resources and/or memory of a client are insufficient to decode and process a video stream, the client only decodes and processes key frames of the video stream. The other frames are discarded by the client. By decoding and processing key frames, the memory and resource requirements of the video stream are reduced. The client is also able to negotiate with the video stream source such that only key frames are downloaded. Bandwidth limitations can thus be accommodated because downloading only key frames requires less bandwidth.