Patent ID: 8769594

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for hosting low-latency streaming interactive audio/video (A/V) comprising: executing one or more video games or applications on a server communicatively coupled to the Internet; receiving packet streams from a plurality of users and routing the packets to the one or more of the video games or applications being executed, the packet streams including user control input, one or more of the video games or applications being operable to compute A/V data responsive to the user control input; receiving the A/V data from the one or more video games or applications; compressing portions of the A/V data in parallel using one or more processing units resulting in low-latency streaming compressed A/V data; and routing the low-latency streaming compressed A/V data to each of the users over a corresponding Internet communication channel, wherein the operations of executing the video games or applications, receiving packet streams and A/V data, compressing portions of the A/V data and routing the low latency streaming compressed A/V data are performed with a latency such that at least one user has the perception that the controlled video game or application is responding instantly.