In this paper, we propose an optimal video streaming framework using retransmissions based on the theory of Markov Decision Processes (MDP). Using MDPs, we calculate average reward optimal policies so as to maximize the on time delivery probability of video frames in the transmission window while conforming to network-imposed available bandwidth constraints. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is validated by comparing the results with theoretically obtained rate-distortion curves corresponding to the optimal policies by using the distortion model in [2] © 2006 IEEE.