A media server device for delivering 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; an encoder module, wherein the encoder module is configured to encode each of the plurality of media programs in 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 media delivery module configured to deliver, using the interface, each of the plurality of media programs from the media server device to the remotely-located playback device during a common synchronization session, wherein the base layers of all of the media programs are transmitted during the common synchronization session before any of the additional layers, and, if sufficient resources remain available after delivery of the base layers, then the at least one additional layers are subsequently provided to the remotely-located playback device via the network; wherein the common synchronization session proceeds according to a schedule that prioritizes at least some of the plurality of additional layers for selected programs based upon user-defined preferences so that higher priority additional layers are transferred before lower priority additional layers. an interface to the network; a data storage device configured to store the plurality of media programs; an encoder module, wherein the encoder module is configured to encode each of the plurality of media programs in 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 media delivery module configured to deliver, using the interface, each of the plurality of media programs from the media server device to the remotely-located playback device during a common synchronization session, wherein the base layers of all of the media programs are transmitted during the common synchronization session before any of the additional layers, and, if sufficient resources remain available after delivery of the base layers, then the at least one additional layers are subsequently provided to the remotely-located playback device via the network; wherein the common synchronization session proceeds according to a schedule that prioritizes at least some of the plurality of additional layers for selected programs based upon user-defined preferences so that higher priority additional layers are transferred before lower priority additional layers.