Patent ID: 7570868

Claim:
A content viewing system comprising: a content player operative to receive a content stream from a content source; a content viewer operative to receive said content stream from said content player; and a buffer into which said content player may store a received content and from which said player may provide a stored content to said content viewer, wherein said content player is operative to: buffer said content stream to said buffer responsive to a request to pause play of said content stream, and retrieve said content from said buffer for playback of a buffered content stream responsive to a request to resume play of said content stream, thereby emptying said buffer, wherein: said buffer is emptied at a faster rate than the rate at which said content stream is buffered, and the rate at which said buffer is emptied varies, wherein the playback rate of content retrieved from said buffer decreases in accordance with a predefined function of a given time allotted for completely emptying said buffer.