Patent ID: 8220027

Claim:
A method to operate a video server, comprising: detecting the presence of one or more playback devices coupled to a network including a video server; determining a need to provide a video file to the one or more playback devices; reading a video file from a storage module coupled to the video server through at least one standardized port module; and providing an optionally trans-coded version of the video file to one or more playback devices coupled to the video server through the network, wherein the optionally trans-coded version of the video file is trans-coded in the video server and the entire optionally trans-coded version of the video file is stored in at least one storage module for later retrieval, avoiding the need for the one or more playback devices to wait for real-time trans-coding, before the optionally trans-coded version of the video file is supplied through the network to the one or more playback devices to better match one or more limitations and capabilities of the network or the one or more playback devices.