Patent ID: 8300552

Claim:
A network interface circuit comprising: an external interface configured to communicate, over the Internet, with a service provider of multimedia content; a data memory circuit; an internal interface configured to communicate with a plurality of output devices each having at least one of audio and video output capabilities; a processor circuit configured to receive a request that identifies multimedia content; send a request for the identified multimedia content to the service provider of multimedia content; receive the requested multimedia content over the external interface; convert the received multimedia content from a packet-based Internet Protocol to a non-packet-based digital format; store the non-packet-based digital format of the media content in the data memory circuit; in response to a user request that is for the multimedia content and that is received by the network interface circuit subsequent to the storage of the multimedia content, access configuration information associated with the multimedia content; authorize access to the multimedia content in response to the configuration information; and retrieve, in response to the authorization, the non-packet-based digital multimedia content from the data memory circuit; select a format, from a plurality of formats, that corresponds to audio-visual output capabilities of a particular output device of the plurality of output devices; convert the non-packet-based digital multimedia content to the selected format; and transmit, in the selected format and using the internal interface, the multimedia content to the particular output device.