The client application provides VCR functionality in a data-centered video multicast network (36) through active prefetching of the fragments from broadcast channels. The player (10) has a user interface (12) that supports a plurality of VCR functions (14-26). Plural buffers (32) and their associated loaders (34) download video data under control of a manager module (38). The manager module accesses the playback pointer (40) and employs feasible point calculation module (42) to cause the loaders to selectively download segments so that VCR functions can be supported while maintaining continuous playback after the VCR function is performed.