Patent ID: 8588589

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving, by a media content access subsystem, data representative of a media content stream; temporarily storing, by the media content access subsystem, the data representative of the media content stream within a buffer for playback to a user; detecting, by the media content access subsystem, an input command provided by the user to pause the playback of the media content stream; pausing, by the media content access subsystem, the playback of the media content stream in response to the input command; accumulating, by the media content access subsystem, data representative of a portion of the media content stream not yet played back within the buffer; detecting, by the media content access subsystem, an alert condition indicating that the data representative of the portion of the media content stream not yet played back is about to be lost such that the user would be unable to experience the portion of the media content stream at a future point in time; and converting, by the media content access subsystem in response to detecting the alert condition, the data representative of the portion of the media content stream not yet played back to a permanent recording to preserve the portion of the media content stream for the user to experience at the future point in time.