Patent ID: 8813127

Claim:
A method of enabling a client device networked to a media server remote from the client device to play media files, the method comprising: (a) detecting the media files formats supported by the client device; (b) receiving a list of downloadable media files from the media server; (c) formatting the list of downloadable media files from the media server into data structures including links to the media files, said step (c) including the steps of: (i) determining whether a media file from the list of downloadable media files is in a format supported by the client device, (ii) formatting the data structure for a media file determined in said step (c)(i) to be in a supported format to include a link with an address directly to a source where the media file is located, and (iii) formatting the data structure for a media file determined in said step (c)(i) to be in an unsupported format to include a link with an address to the media server; (d) generating a user interface for display on a monitor associated with the client device, the user interface displaying the list of downloadable media files; (e) receiving a request from the client device to obtain a media file in an unsupported format in accordance with the data structure associated with the media file; (f) obtaining the media file requested in said step (e); (g) transcoding, by the media server, the media file obtained in said step (f) into a format supported by the client device; (h) forwarding the media file transcoded in said step (g) to the client device for playing by the client device; (i) receiving a root search query, the root query search generated by the user; (j) generating search results for the root search query; (k) generating one or more derivative search queries from the root search query, the derivative search queries generated by a metadata mining engine that is capable of deriving search queries that are related to the original root search query; (l) generating search results for the one or more derivative search queries; and (m) repeating steps (e) through (h) to create a virtual television channel that includes: (i) media files, at least some of which having been transcoded from the unsupported format and (ii) media files from the search results of the root search query in said step (j) and from the search results of the one or more derivative search queries in said step (l).