Patent ID: 8433814

Claim:
A method for downloading a digital content file from a content distribution network (CDN) residing within a content distribution system, the method comprising: receiving a CDN list from a content directory server that includes one or more CDNs residing within the content distribution system and also includes a rank and a weight for each of the one or more CDNs; selecting a CDN from the CDN list from which to download the digital content file based on a bandwidth test, wherein the selected CDN is capable of downloading a portion of the digital content file to a content player machine at a highest bit rate associated with the content player machine or has a weighted bandwidth greater than or equal to the weighted bandwidth associated with any other CDN included in the CDN list, the weighted bandwidth associated with a particular CDN being equal to the product of the bit rate at which the particular CDN can download the portion of the digital content file to the content player machine and the weight included in the CDN list for the particular CDN; launching a buffering thread configured to download digital content associated with the digital content file from the selected CDN and to store the digital content in a content buffer; and launching a playback thread configured to play the digital content stored in the content buffer.