Patent ID: 7669219

Claim:
A method comprising: identifying a group of two or more media entertainment client devices; generating a group identity having no associated members; receiving at least one of a group membership request to associate with the group identity, wherein the group membership request includes data indicating a timeline position and a media content identifier associated with media content presented by at least one of the media entertainment client devices; determining a first media entertainment client device of the group which is furthest, in presenting of the media content, from a beginning of a timeline associated with the media content; determining a second media entertainment client device of the group which is closest, in presenting of the media content, from the beginning of the timeline associated with the media content; determining a third media entertainment client device of the group which is, in presenting of the media content, between the first media entertainment client device and the second media entertainment client device on the timeline associated with the media content; calculating a time to synchronize the first and second media entertainment client devices on the timeline; generating a first synchronization command being a pause command which directs the first media entertainment client device to pause presenting of the media content; generating a second synchronization command being a fast-forward command which directs the second media entertainment client device to fast-forward presenting of the media content at a first rate to synchronize the first and second media entertainment client devices on the timeline, wherein the first rate is calculated by dividing a time difference between the first and second media entertainment client devices on the timeline by the time calculated to synchronize the first and second media entertainment client devices on the timeline; generating a third synchronization command being a fast-forward command and a pause command which directs the third media entertainment client device to fast-forward presenting of the media content at a second rate and pause the presenting of the media content to synchronize the third media entertainment client device with the first and second media entertainment client devices on the timeline in the time calculated to synchronize the first and second media entertainment client devices on the timeline; and communicating the first, second and third synchronization commands to the first, second and third media entertainment client devices, respectively, such that execution of the synchronization commands by the media entertainment client devices results in synchronized presentation of media content by each of the media entertainment client devices.