Patent ID: 7680898

Claim:
A computing system comprising: means for maintaining a list of one or more user designated directories where multi-media files have been stored in the past; input means for generating a request for one or more multi-media files for use in a multi-media editing project, wherein the multi-media editing project comprises a render engine, the render engine exposes a dynamically reconfigurable matrix switch comprising a scalable plurality of input switches and a scalable plurality of output switches generated to satisfy the multi-media editing project, the request being generated by a user computer that comprises part of a network where multi-media files are maintained in a network-accessible location, the render engine configured to: invoke an instance of a filter graph manager to assemble a tree structure of the multi-media editing project, noting a dependency between a source and one or more filters; ascertain performance characteristics of hardware and software components of the computing system, wherein ascertaining performance characteristics of hardware and software components of the computing system comprises accessing and analyzing a system directory of an operating system of the computing system to ascertain performance characteristics of hardware and software components; and adjust filter graph construction of the system based upon the ascertained performance characteristics; one or more processors; one or more computer-readable storage media having computer-readable instructions thereon which, when executed by said one or more processors, perform a method comprising: intercepting the request by the user computer; ascertaining whether a requested multi-media file is located on the user computer by checking one or more user-designated directories for the requested multi-media file listed in the list of one or more user designated directories; retrieving the requested multi-media file from the user computer if the file is located on the user computer in the one or more of the user-designated directories; asking a user to designate an additional local directory if the requested multi-media file is not located on the user computer in the one or more of the user-designated directories; seeking the requested multi-media file from the network-accessible location if the multi-media file is not located on the user computer in the additional local directory; and updating the list responsive to the user designating the additional local directory.