Patent ID: 7234026

Claim:
A method for retrieving and playing media data by a media player, the media player having a disk-based data store and a semiconductor-based data store, said method comprises: identifying a media item to be played on the media player, media data for the media item includes a plurality of data portions, the data portions including a first portion and remaining portions, the remaining portions being different than and not including the initial portion; retrieving the first portion of the media data for the media item from the disk-based data store; playing the first portion of the media data for the media item retrieved from the disk-based data store without first storing to the semiconductor-based data store, the semiconductor-based data store having a faster access time than does the disk-based data store; initiating processing to load at least the remaining portions of the media data from the disk-based data store to the semiconductor-based data store; and playing the remaining portions of the media data retrieved from the semiconductor-based data store.