Buffer management for optimized processing in media pipeline

Automated processes, computing systems, computing devices, and other aspects of a data processing system improve reliability in transmitting digital media content over a network using resource constrained hardware. Media content may be received from a media source and used to generate data segments. An address may be written to a message queue, with the address referencing a first segment of the media content stored in the buffer. A computing device may check whether a number of addresses stored in a message queue is greater than or equal to a first threshold value. A second segment of the media content may be written to the message queue in response to the number of addresses stored in the message queue being greater than or equal to the first threshold value.