A home network system comprising: a controlling device having storage to house a plurality of multimedia items; a plurality of rendering devices (116, 120, 124) coupled to the controlling device, each of the plurality of rendering devices are connected to a monitor (118, 122, 126) and comprise storage, the storage of at least one of the rendering devices (116, 120, 124) including a partitioned cache of a pre- determined length to: enable a portion of a protected multimedia item received from the controlling device to be pre-cached on the at least one rendering device (116, 120, 124) prior to selection by a user for viewing, and pre-cache a first key obtained via a first key exchange in response to the portion of the protected multimedia item being pre-cached into the partitioned cache prior to selection by the user for viewing, the first key to decrypt the portion of the protected multimedia item pre-cached in the partitioned cache; wherein in response to the user selection of the protected multimedia item for viewing, the partitioned cache to expand and a remaining portion of the protected multimedia item to be progressively downloaded from the controlling device to the cache while the monitor simultaneously displays the multimedia item from the cache; and wherein the partitioned cache further to store a second key in response to the remaining portion of the protected multimedia item being progressively downloaded from the controlling device, the second key to decrypt the remaining portion of the protected multimedia item progressively downloaded from the controlling device. a controlling device having storage to house a plurality of multimedia items; a plurality of rendering devices (116, 120, 124) coupled to the controlling device, each of the plurality of rendering devices are connected to a monitor (118, 122, 126) and comprise storage, the storage of at least one of the rendering devices (116, 120, 124) including a partitioned cache of a pre- determined length to: enable a portion of a protected multimedia item received from the controlling device to be pre-cached on the at least one rendering device (116, 120, 124) prior to selection by a user for viewing, and pre-cache a first key obtained via a first key exchange in response to the portion of the protected multimedia item being pre-cached into the partitioned cache prior to selection by the user for viewing, the first key to decrypt the portion of the protected multimedia item pre-cached in the partitioned cache; enable a portion of a protected multimedia item received from the controlling device to be pre-cached on the at least one rendering device (116, 120, 124) prior to selection by a user for viewing, and pre-cache a first key obtained via a first key exchange in response to the portion of the protected multimedia item being pre-cached into the partitioned cache prior to selection by the user for viewing, the first key to decrypt the portion of the protected multimedia item pre-cached in the partitioned cache; wherein in response to the user selection of the protected multimedia item for viewing, the partitioned cache to expand and a remaining portion of the protected multimedia item to be progressively downloaded from the controlling device to the cache while the monitor simultaneously displays the multimedia item from the cache; and wherein the partitioned cache further to store a second key in response to the remaining portion of the protected multimedia item being progressively downloaded from the controlling device, the second key to decrypt the remaining portion of the protected multimedia item progressively downloaded from the controlling device.