Patent ID: 8811797

Claim:
A method comprising: switching back and forth between time order and popularity order sending of segments of a video based on whether a number of segments of the video in a buffer after a buffer position is less than a play threshold, wherein the switching back and forth between time order and popularity order sending of segments of the video comprises: if the number of segments of the video in the buffer after the buffer position is less than the play threshold, sending a first plurality of segments into the buffer in time order; if the number of segments of the video in the buffer after the buffer position is not less than the play threshold, sending a second plurality of segments to the buffer in popularity order, wherein the second plurality of segments are stored into the buffer in time order, wherein the sending the second plurality of segments in popularity order further comprises sending the second plurality of segments that have popularity scores that are greater than a minimum popularity threshold score; and calculating the popularity scores by decreasing the popularity scores by a first amount for the segments that were not sent and not played and by decreasing the popularity scores by a second amount for the segments that were sent and not played, wherein the second amount is greater than the first amount.