A method for a hosting service center communicating with a client device via the internet, the hosting service center comprising a plurality of servers and a compression unit, the method, comprising: receiving input commands sent by a user via a client device to a first server executing a video game or interactive application at the hosting service center, a first uncompressed video stream being generated therefrom by the first server in accordance with the input commands, a compression unit being coupled to receive the first uncompressed video stream and produce a compressed video stream therefrom, the client device receiving the compressed video stream and not running the video game or interactive application locally, thus enabling the user to interact in real-time with the video game or interactive application executing at the hosting service center via the Internet; and transitioning, at the hosting service center in response to input received from the client device, the user from the first server to a second server executing a video game or interactive application that generates a second uncompressed video stream output to the compression unit, the transitioning comprising switching, by the compression unit, from compressing the first uncompressed video stream to compressing the second uncompressed video stream for provision to the client device of the user, the first frame of the second uncompressed video stream being ignored by the compression unit unless the compression unit has completed transmitting a prior encoded frame of the first uncompressed video stream and, in case of ignoring said first frame of the second uncompressed video stream, the last frame of the first compressed video stream being held for at least an extra frame time by the client device such that the transitioning appears substantially seamless to the user; wherein the compressed video stream comprises a series of encoded frames and wherein, when a compressed frame has more data than can be transmitted at a peak data rate in a single frame time, the compression unit ignores one or more of the subsequent frame(s) of the uncompressed video stream until the compression unit has completed transmitting prior encoded frames. receiving input commands sent by a user via a client device to a first server executing a video game or interactive application at the hosting service center, a first uncompressed video stream being generated therefrom by the first server in accordance with the input commands, a compression unit being coupled to receive the first uncompressed video stream and produce a compressed video stream therefrom, the client device receiving the compressed video stream and not running the video game or interactive application locally, thus enabling the user to interact in real-time with the video game or interactive application executing at the hosting service center via the Internet; and transitioning, at the hosting service center in response to input received from the client device, the user from the first server to a second server executing a video game or interactive application that generates a second uncompressed video stream output to the compression unit, the transitioning comprising switching, by the compression unit, from compressing the first uncompressed video stream to compressing the second uncompressed video stream for provision to the client device of the user, the first frame of the second uncompressed video stream being ignored by the compression unit unless the compression unit has completed transmitting a prior encoded frame of the first uncompressed video stream and, in case of ignoring said first frame of the second uncompressed video stream, the last frame of the first compressed video stream being held for at least an extra frame time by the client device such that the transitioning appears substantially seamless to the user;