Patent ID: 8082226

Claim:
A system, for managing access to media files in a distributed media system, comprising: a computer implementing a quality management engine having access to an index database that indexes media files available to the distributed media system; and one or more users providing requests for media files to the quality management engine, wherein a request includes an indication of one or more sources, and wherein the media files available to the distributed media system include a plurality of versions of the one or more sources, each of the plurality of versions for a given source of the one or more sources having at least one of a different resolution and compression; wherein the quality management engine identifies, from the index database, available media files for the one or more sources, and provides, to the one or more users requesting the one or more sources, identities of the available media files that include a version of the one or more sources having at least one of a resolution and compression determined from respective user context information for the one or more users.