Patent ID: 7809252

Claim:
A multimedia playback apparatus, comprising: a mass storage device having a multiplicity of blocks of multimedia data stored thereon, said multimedia data including video and audio data; a cache buffer coupled to said mass storage device for storing a plurality of blocks of said multimedia data read from said mass storage device, said cache buffer having a capacity for storing a first amount of said multimedia data; a track buffer coupled to said cache buffer and having a storage capacity for storing a second amount of said multimedia data read from said cache buffer; and a cache manager coupled to said cache buffer and said track buffer for controlling transfer of said multimedia data from said mass storage device to said cache buffer and from said cache buffer to said track buffer, said cache manager responding to a read request of a particular block of multimedia data fetches said requested block of multimedia data from said mass storage device and fetches additional blocks of multimedia data anticipated being subject to future read requests to substantially fill said cache buffer for transfer to said track buffer and said mass storage device enters a reduced power consumption mode responsive to said cache buffer being filled with a plurality of untransferred blocks of multimedia data to a first threshold level, said mass storage device exiting said reduced power consumption mode responsive to said plurality of untransferred blocks of multimedia data being below a second threshold level, said cache manager replacing blocks of transferred multimedia data in accordance with a priority hierarchy based on at least one characteristic of said blocks of multimedia data.