Patent ID: 8201202

Claim:
A method of providing improved quality of Internet Protocol (IP) video content over the Internet, comprising: for an item of IP video content, calculating a score representative of a likelihood that a particular viewer will order the item of video content; where the score comprises a weighted combination of score components, and where the score components comprise at least a score component representing a general popularity of the item of content among multiple users, a score component representing an analysis of the viewer's viewing habits as they relate to the item of content, and a score component representing a viewer's direct input regarding the item of video content; if the score is greater than a threshold score T, then downloading a portion of the item of video content from a content provider, and storing the portion of the item of video content in a storage location local to the viewer, where the downloaded portion of the item of video content comprises less than full video resolution of the video content; and where if the score is greater than the threshold T, a percentage of the item of video content that is downloaded and stored increases with increasing score; if the viewer elects to view item of video content, then: retrieving the stored portion of the item of video content, streaming an augmentation to the stored portion of the item of video content from the content provider, and combining the stored portion with the augmentation of the stored portion to produce an improved resolution version of the item of video content.