Patent ID: 9705727
Date: 2017-07-11
CPC Classifications: H04L,H04N

Claim:
1. A media server device to deliver a plurality of media programs to a remotely-located playback device via a network, the media server device comprising: an interface to the network; a data storage device configured to store the plurality of media programs; processing circuitry configured to encode each of the media programs into a multi-layer format having a plurality of layers that comprises a base layer and at least one additional layer, wherein the base layer supports playback of the entire media program at a lower resolution and wherein each of the at least one additional layers provides additional data that, when combined with the base layer, supports playback of the media program at a higher resolution than the lower resolution supported by the base layer; and a processor configured to execute a software program comprising a media delivery module configured to automatically deliver the plurality of media programs to the remotely-located playback device using the interface, wherein the base layers of all of the media program are first provided to the remotely-located playback device and, if the network remains available after delivery of all of the base layers for all of the media programs is complete, then the at least one additional layers are subsequently provided to the remotely-located playback device while the network remains available to thereby enable the remotely-located playback device to play back any of the plurality of media programs in its entirety at the lower resolution using the received base layer of the media program even if the network is no longer available to deliver the at least one additional layers of one or more of the media programs.